Welcome to Freedom In Spokane!

This site is dedicated to people in eastern Washington who are sick and tired of their local, state, and federal governments taxing and regulating the them to death and who actually want to do something about it. It has been stated that "Communism is the product of the apathy of many and the audacity of the few." Well it is time to remedy this situation. A variety of organizations that you can get involved with to help promote the ideas of freedom and liberty are listed on this page. We suggest that you sign up to as many different mailing lists as would interest you to help fight for the cause of freedom. The Marxists are certainly not letting up pushing such measures as banker bailouts, carbon taxes, and national health care--unless we get active and put up a strong front against them, this nation is doomed to suffer the same fate as the former Soviet Union.

Perhaps the most impactful project that we are currently pursuing here is the "Initiative Convention" idea. The state of Washington has an incredibly versatile initiative and referendum provision built right into its constitution. It has been used successfully by many groups across this state to limit Olympia's power to tax and regulate us to death. Just this year I-1033 will be on the ballot to limit property tax increases, and groups are attempting to get R-71 and R-72 on the ballot which would overturn recent legislation on gay marriage and the ability of cities to annex properties WITHOUT a vote of the people. However, the current process is often expensive to carry out statewide and, in my opinion, if we want to reverse course in this state we need a LOT of initiatives to get the politicians to change course. And the great thing about a statewide initiative is once passed the state legislators CANNOT overturn it for three years!

The pilot project here involves the city of Spokane. For those that are not aware, the City Council voted in May by a five to two vote to approve the Mayor's Sustainability Action Plan. While there are several admirable goals present in this plan, thrown in is the abominable view that we need to alter city policy to reduce greenhouse gases. This is the same false doctrine held with religious fervor that led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Waxman-Markey Economic Suicide Act (hopefully this will be halted in the Senate). Only two Spokane Council Representatives -- Nancy McLaughlin and Bob Apple -- had the courage to vote against this plan whose implementation could result in Spokane taxpayer money wasted just to reduce a non-toxic non-harmful gas which is produced by all animals NATURALLY.

On July 2, 2009 an initiative was filed in the city of Spokane (2009-03) to amend the city's charter to prevent the government from wasting taxpayer money to meet dubious greenhouse gas emission goals. It also puts additional restrictions on the ability of the City to reduce a person's property value through zoning changes or to seize it through eminent domain methods. The latter provisions were written to prevent a situation such as ruled on in Kelo v. New London from happening in the City of Spokane. It is an ordinance the City Council would probably never want to have to take a vote on because most voters UNDERSTAND that global warming is a fraud and private property rights need to be respected. Guess what--if we get just under 3,000 signatures before the November election, we can FORCE the City Council to take a vote on this PRIOR to the election, so the entire city knows exactly where they stand. More importantly, the PEOPLE get the final vote!!

This pilot project is testing the hypothesis that initiative signatures can be gathered more efficiently using tools such as viral marketing without the need to raise a bunch of money to fund the petition. We also want to collect a mailing list of people who are interested in signing such measures for future reference. If we CAN MAKE THIS WORK, there is no reason we cannot do this subsequently, not with one, but MANY initiatives covering every aspect of City Hall that we find appalling. We also want this to be the precursor to a STATEWIDE initiative conventions which bring the same economies of scale to the process to pass initiatives TO THE LEGISLATURE, which will FORCE them to vote on measures such as the sovereignty amendment they would not even give a hearing in committee last year -- if they do NOT vote for it the people will have the final say.

This initial petition is not likely to get on the ballot this year UNLESS we can get just under 3,000 valid signatures by Monday, July 6. Realistically this will likely not happen; however, I want to see how many signatures we can accumulate in such a short period of time using viral marketing techniques--who knows, maybe there is a 1 in a 1,000 chance that we get those signatures by Monday--never underestimate the power of the internet. We will also have petitions for people to sign at the upcoming Spokane Tea Party (Saturday July 4 at 1PM, Where: Plantes Ferry Park; 12308 E Upriver Dr;Spokane Valley, WA 99206).

Unlike state initiatives, the City of Spokane allows for people to use normal letter paper that everyone has on their computer to print out signatures. The PDF of the petition is available for download by clicking here and anyone can print it out at home--just make sure that the front side of the paper contains the signatures page and back contains the measure itself. You can do this on a laser printer by putting the original printed copy back in the paper tray, in a reversed orientation. There is also copy of the measure in larger print which you can download by clicking here which you can show to people who have trouble reading the full text of the charter on the reverse side. Take the sample email or an email of your own and send it as an attachment to everyone you know. If you are coming to the Tea Party there will be people there to collect signature pages and we will also try to arrange for pickup points at places around the city on Sunday and Monday. Check back at this website - FreedomInWashington.com - for updates. Let's see how many signatures we can get in a short amount of time. Even if we do not get all 3,000 this weekend (which is highly likely) we have almost a year to continue to collect signatures to get it on the ballot eventually, although preferably I want to force a City Council vote on this BEFORE the November elections, preferably in October so the vote is still fresh in people's minds.

The Initiative Convention - The Vision

Increasingly our legislators seem more wedded to party ideology and special interests than doing the will of the people. If we want change in government, we need to try new methods to affect change. The state of Washington has a wonderful versatile initiative provision written right into the state's constitution. With 240,000 signatures the people can directly propose legislation and the socialist legislators in Olympia cannot do anything to impede this process! Unfortunately, getting 240,000 through conventional methods such as paid signature gatherers takes a lot of money and effort.

With the advent of the internet and concepts of viral marketing, I believe that this situation could dramatically change. This is particularly true now as citizens feel more alienated from their out of touch legislators than every before. I believe it is time to revolutionize the way the initiative process is handled using the economies of scale that can be organized by using the internet.

First, if we can collect a large database of emails of freedom loving individuals we should theoretically be able to get many initiatives signed very quickly. At the extreme, if we get 240,000 active participants in the state on the mailing list, it is a matter of emailing a petition to everyone and having them send it back. Realistically, it might be difficult to find that many people to be that active. However, if we can get 12,000 willing to get 20 signatures each from their friends and family, that is something that could be potentially very effective.

Viral marketing, simply forwarding emails to everyone you know, particularly those upset with the government can spread information like wildfire. If one combines it with "Digg bombs" where a bunch of people give a positive rating to a press release is a way of getting many other web surfers aware of what we are doing. These methods could potentially do away with the need for massive consumer advertising in the process of creating a large email activist list and increasing awareness of what you are trying to accomplish.

The other key idea is the concept of a large annual or semi-annual event which could get a ton of publicity such as the recent Tea Parties popping up all over the country. Viral marketing methods combined with word of mouth can be effectively used here. The idea is to have locations spring up all over the state where 10, 20, 30, or MORE initiatives will be on one place for people to go and sign. The concept is bringing economies of scale to the initiative process! Take all the effort towards getting one initiative and apply it to multiple initiatives.

Now think of what we can do then. We could have the following initiatives (1) a jury nullification initiative providing explicit instructions to the jury that THEY have a right to determine both the facts AND THE LAW (see U.S. v. Dougherty) and explicitly tell them they can vote not guilty if the law violates the Constitution! (2) a gun rights bill such as the one recently passed in Montana, (3) an anti carbon tax initiative like the recent legislation passed in Arizona in response to the Waxman-Markey Economic Suicide Bill. (4) Bills to reduce business taxation and overregulation. (5) Get rid of growth management! (6) Get rid of useless bureaucracies like the Department of Ecology. (7) Bills that make the National Animal Identification VOLUNTARY instead of mandatory in the state. (8) Prevent implementation of intrusive Real ID laws in the State. (9) Protect manifest intrastate commerce from federal government regulation. (10) Get rid of intrusive laws such as seat belt legislation. Are you starting to get the idea of what is possible here? The possibilities are endless.

It gets even better. Not only can we submit a law directly to the voters, we can force legislators in Olympia to VOTE on this legislation BEFORE the vote to the people! Let's face it. The people in Washington are not nearly as liberal as the Gregoire gang in Olympia. That is why a lot of bills, such as the Sovereignty bill sponsored by Matt Shea would not even get a hearing in Olympia...they did NOT want to go on record with a vote when they know the people are upset with the Feds. If we submit an initiative to the legislature, they HAVE to vote on it, no matter how uncomfortable it is! And if they do not approve it, the great thing is the people have the final vote! We then also get to remind people of the representatives' votes during the next election, which might help change the balance of power in the state.

If you are interested in participating in the initiative convention concept I urge you to sign up in one capacity or another by clicking here, where you can also sign up for the mailing lists of other liberty loving organizations. All it takes is a little outside the box thinking and we can take back this state. However, if people like us are unwilling to do anything, we should just surrender to the Marxists and be ashamed of the legacy we have left for our children. We can accomplish nothing without your help.

Sample Viral Email

Here is a sample email you could send to all your friends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances in the area that they can send on to their friends, etc. You can also download the petitions from the blue links below and attach them to the email for the convenience of those that receive the message. Feel free to modify or personalize this however you see fit!

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It is time to give a voice to people who do not buy into the global warming propaganda in the City of Spokane!

For those that are not aware, the City Council voted in May by a five to two vote to approve the Mayor's Sustainability Action Plan. While there are several admirable goals present in this plan, thrown in is the abominable view that we need to alter city policy to reduce greenhouse gases. This is the same false doctrine held with religious fervor that led the U.S. House of Representatives to pass the Waxman-Markey Economic Suicide Act on June 26th (hopefully this will be halted in the Senate). Only two Spokane Council Representatives -- Nancy McLaughlin and Bob Apple -- had the courage to vote against this plan whose implementation could result in Spokane taxpayer money wasted just to reduce a non-toxic non-harmful gas which is produced by all animals NATURALLY.

On July 2, 2009 an initiative was filed in the city of Spokane (2009-03) to amend the city's charter to prevent the government from wasting taxpayer money to meet dubious greenhouse gas emission goals. We also know that environmentalists working under United Nations Agenda 21 guidelines often use arbitrary zoning changes to herd people into more compact communities, as is hinted at in section 4.1.4 of the Mayor's
Plan titled "Enable Optimal Land Use" which mentioned a goal to "Encourage compact communities." Thus, this ballot measure also puts additional restrictions on the ability of the City to reduce a person's property value through zoning changes or to seize it through eminent domain methods. The latter provisions were written to prevent a situation such as ruled on in Kelo v. City of New London from happening in the City of Spokane. This charter amendment is an ordinance the City Council would probably never want to have to take a vote on because most voters UNDERSTAND that global warming is a fraud and private property rights need to be respected. Guess what--if we get just under 3,000 signatures before the November election, we can FORCE the City Council to take a vote on this PRIOR to the election, so the entire city knows exactly where they stand. More importantly, the PEOPLE get the final vote!!

This pilot project is testing the hypothesis that initiative signatures can be gathered more efficiently using tools such as viral marketing without the need to raise a bunch of money to fund the initiative. We also want to collect a mailing list of people who are interested in signing such measures for future reference. I therefore urge you to also sign up for the mailing list to receive future updates by clicking here (where one can also get on the mailing lists of several other freedom loving organizations). If we CAN MAKE THIS WORK, there is no reason we cannot do this subsequently, not with one, but MANY initiatives covering every aspect of City Hall that we find appalling. We also want this to be the precursor to a STATEWIDE initiative conventions which bring the same economies of scale to the process to pass initiatives TO THE LEGISLATURE, which will FORCE them to vote on measures such as the sovereignty amendment they would not even give a hearing in committee last year -- if they do NOT vote for it the people will have the final say!

This initial petition is not likely to get on the ballot this year UNLESS we can get just under 3,000 valid signatures by Monday, July 6. Realistically this will likely not happen; however, I want to see how many signatures we can accumulate in such a short period of time using viral marketing techniques--who knows, maybe there is a 1 in a 1,000 chance that we get those signatures by Monday--never underestimate the
power of the internet. Can you imagine just how shocked the City Council would be if we accumulated signatures that rapidly? Do you think that MIGHT send a strong message? We will also have petitions for people to sign at the upcoming Spokane Tea Party (Saturday July 4 at 1PM, Where: Plantes Ferry Park; 12308 E Upriver Dr;Spokane Valley, WA 99206).

Unlike WA state initiatives, the City of Spokane allows for people to use normal letter paper that everyone has on their computer to print out signatures. The PDF of the petition is attached and is also available for download by clicking here . Anyone can print it out at home--just make sure that the front side of the paper contains the signatures page and back contains the measure itself. You can do this on a laser printer by putting the original printed copy back in the paper tray, in a reversed orientation. Please note that ONLY registered voters who live IN THE CITY can sign this petition. There is also copy of the measure in larger print attached which you can download by clicking here which you can show to people who have trouble reading the full text of the charter on the reverse side. Take this email or an email of your own and send it as an attachment to everyone you know in the area, even if they do not live in the city (they might have friend who do)!! In light of the June 26th vote in the House of Representatives I imagine there are TONS OF PEOPLE who are eager to send a message to the global warming crowd--we do not approve of this insanity! If everyone forwards this out immediately and gets involved I think we could all be shocked at how many signatures we can get over the next couple of days, let alone the next couple of weeks or months if necessary. If you are coming to the Tea Party there will be people there to collect signature pages and we will also try to arrange for pickup points at places around the city on Sunday and Monday. Please go to FreedomInWashington.com for updates and more information on this effort. Let's see how many signatures we can get in a short amount of time! Even if we do not get all 3,000 this weekend (which is highly likely) we have almost a year to continue to collect signatures to get it on the ballot eventually, although preferably I want to force a City Council vote on this BEFORE the November elections, preferably in October so the vote is still fresh in people's minds.

Now go out and show the cult of global warming that we will not take this lying down!!

Innovative Ways to Take Our Country Back

If you are like me you are wondering who the heck the people in Washington -- both this state and the District of Criminals on the other side of the nation -- think they are? The government is supposed to be limited by the Constitution in terms of what they are allowed to do. Any law that violates the Constitution is technically invalid and unenforceable. However, increasingly corrupt judges who view the Constitution as some mere piece of toilet paper, a "living document" that can be ignored at will to advance government power...and let's face it, they were appointed by politicians who almost universally want power.

How can we stop this? Well there are certainly the traditional methods of (1) writing your representatives and expressing your displeasure with them. We all see how wonderful that worked out with the bankster bailout bill and the Waxman-Markey Economic Suicide bill. Politicians just do not care what you think. (2) Getting PERSONALLY involved in election campaigns. This works great in local races, but lets face it...in statewide and nationwide races, the election can essentially be bought be special interests...citizens can rarely compete with the big money corporations; although if we REALLY got involved and motivated maybe that can change.

So now you are probably feeling dejected. Well there ARE things we can do to push back the power of the ravenous beast that has become our federal government. These are out of the box methods that can be VERY POWERFUL if we get enough people behind them.

1. Initiative Conventions. Many states grant citizens the power to directly present legislation for a vote of the people. NO POLITICIAN CAN PREVENT THESE FROM BECOMING LAW!! All it takes is building a durable and inexpensive infrastructure of patriots to translate the frustration in an increasingly Marxist regime into activists who are willing to participate in statewide initiative conventions. This idea is treated in more detail elsewhere at this blog as I believe that it is one of the most powerful ways to generate political change.

2. Jury Nullification. Most people think that juries determine the facts and judges determine the law. That is not quite true. Our founders always held that judges BEST determined the facts, but juries maintain the right to determine both the FACTS and the LAW. To a government gone haywire this is quite inconvenient. If juries were actually informed that they had a RESPONSIBILITY to vote not guilty if the law the accused was prosecuted under was not Constitutional, most of the illegal laws in this country would be completely ignored. This is EXACTLY what happened with the fugitive slave laws prior to the civil war--juries would justifiably not enforce it so the prosecutors stopped bringing cases. This is the situation we have to create in this country.

Where did we go wrong? Well I encourage you to read the decision of US v. Dougherty, including a well written dissention. In this decision the Appellate Court upheld the notion that juries had the RIGHT to disregard the law if the law was illegal. However, it also stated that the government was NOT OBLIGATED to tell juries. In fact I found it quite amusing when reading the majority opinion that the judge states, "there are times when logic is not the only or even best guide to sound conduct of government" which tells you a lot about what is wrong with the judiciary today." One of the stated reasons was that at the time of the U.S. revolution judges "were not the colonial appointees projecting royalist patronage and influence" who might be biased, and with a Constitutional Republic those fears should be gone as we should be more concerned by jury lawlessness (i.e. them not approving of STUPID laws). Anyone who thinks are current justices are unbiased when nominations for the Supreme Court and Appellate Courts are dependent on maintaining a political ideology consistent with desires by the establishment for biggest government...is completely nuts! Never before in this country's history should jury's start being told of their rights.

Since, governments are not obligated to tell juries of their rights, the people need to force legislation down their throats via the initiative process that EXPRESSLY informs juries of their rights in the jury instructions. This should be the first initiative passed at an initiative convention. Moreover, the PUBLICITY and PUBLIC AWARENESS OF SUCH A CAMPAIGN should be enough to tip the balance in favor of lawful jury nullification, even if the initiative does not pass. Remember, it only takes one principled and informed individual to prevent the state from enforcing an illegal law! If we can educate the public, the governments ability to convict anyone of overreaching laws is COMPLETELY DESTROYED!!

3. Sheriff Outreach. In my opinion the county sheriff is THE MOST IMPORTANT elected official in the country. One can buy the presidency or governorship by bowing down to the will of the bankers who dole out the big money the allow a candidate to win. However, a motivated local population CAN SUCCESSFULLY turn the tide in the sheriff's race. Most people are not aware, but the state and federal government needs permission from the county sheriff BEFORE they can do anything in that county!! For more details on the case law behind this I would suggest you go to www.sheriffmack.com and buy his groundbreaking book "County Sheriff: America's Last Hope" EVERY SHERIFF IN THE COUNTRY SHOULD BE GIVEN A COPY OF THIS BOOK!!

Sheriff's have taken an oath to protect and defend the Constitution. Now that the state and federal governments are BLATANTLY IGNORING THIS SAME DOCUMENT, it is the Sheriff's responsibility to keep federal officials from enforcing illegal laws such as gun confiscation (and I would argue the list should be MUCH MUCH LONGER--most sheriff's do not have a detailed understanding of the Constitution, unfortunately) in his county. In states where the Sheriff is elected I suggest large groups of people start getting petitions together (could be done as part of an initiative convention) asking the current Sheriff where he stands on this issue. It is time for these guys to take sides--the federal government and all their funding for techno-gadgets for the local force, or the people who they work for! If a sheriff is unwilling to uphold his oath, you should run someone against him WHO UNDERSTANDS AND RESPECTS THE CONSTITUTION. It does not have to be a law enforcement officer--I would much rather have someone who KNOWS the legal limits of government power, and preferably understand the Constitution is not a "living, breathing" document.

4. LAWFUL CIVIL DISOBEDIENCE. Perhaps the most controversial plank, it is sometimes the last ditch effort if 1-3 have failed. The fact of the matter is that no one has to obey illegal laws. For example, I will NEVER pay a fee for being "uninsured" as the federal government has NO TAXING AUTHORITY GRANTED BY THE US CONSTITUTION for THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT taxing or fining "not doing something." That would be not an excise, but an unapportioned direct tax expressly forbid by the US Constitution. In fact, this is not even an "income" item covered by the 16th amendment--this is government going completely outside the bounds of its authority. Any half competent judge or jury should understand this--especially if you have worked on point 2. If enough people join in civil disobedience it is highly unlikely that any jury will convict. People just have to have the courage of their convictions. If as little as 20% of the country refused to go along with such an illegal tax, the government cannot even afford to put them all in jail. Remember, the government only has the authority that WE ALLOW THEM TO HAVE. When they start ignoring the law, we have the responsibility and DUTY to ignore such laws. If America got a backbone and held to these principles in mass, we would have NO PROBLEM with a tyrannical socialist regime gone out of control. Anyone who is unwilling to stand up for his own freedoms and rights deserves to live as a slave!