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Volunteers Needed!
We are taking ongoing action for the upcoming Legislative Session. Please volunteer if you would like to help educate voters on what their elected officials are doing!
Volunteer to help on one of the many KCRP Committees. Learn more about them at https://www.kitsaprepublicans.com/committees.
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Bits & Pieces
Kitsap County News Item: Share your experience and insights to help communities thrive: apply to serve on a Kitsap County advisory group!
Kitsap County is seeking community members to join its advisory groups. These essential positions, appointed by County Commissioners, serve as a vital link between residents, businesses, communities, county staff and elected officials.
Advisory group members play a key role in guiding the equitable distribution of resources and funding that enhance services, infrastructure, safety and overall quality of life. They shape plans and policy that reflect the needs and vision of the people, amplifying community concerns and initiatives.
To read the whole article, visit: https://content.govdelivery.com/accounts/WAKITSAP/bulletins/3d7058b
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Our governor is posting rude things about DOGE on X.
Elon Musk’s role in the Trump administration is unconstitutional. If the President wants Musk or any other powerful billionaire to have a significant role in running our government, he can and should appoint them as the Constitution requires. [That's what he did!]
https://x.com/govbobferguson/status/1890251416754876632?s=46
Apparently, Marco Rubio backed Musk and DOGE firing people with his metaphorical chain-saw and has asked Mr. Trump to give "surgical firing" capability to the Secretaries of the various departments being analyzed by DOGE. First, yes the President does have the power to call an audit on the government and appoint people to do so, even tho it is SUPPOSED to be Congress's responsibility under the Constitution. Mr. Trump IS the Chief Executive. From contacts inside the IRS, there is utter chaos, stomach churning and havoc, they are all terrified they will be fired over-night. GS-13 is usually safe from such RIFs but not this time. As much fun as it’s been to watch, for those of us not in the bullseye, department heads should be taking DOGE's data and acting accordingly, not the audit firm. Your tax dollars at work.
★★★★★
Oversight Project investigation: Biden autopen signature used on 'every document we could find' --Published: March 8, 2025
Dig Deeper: The Oversight Project, an investigative arm of the conservative Heritage Foundation, alleged an excessive use of autopen signature by former President Biden when he was in the White House. The Oversight Project is questioning "who controlled the autopen" because "they controlled the presidency."
https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2025/mar/11/joe-bidens-use-autopen-official-documents-raises-questions-critics
Following the Oversight Project findings, Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey called for the Department of Justice to investigate whether Biden’s "cognitive decline allowed unelected staff to push through radical policy without his knowing approval." Bailey argued that if the widespread autopen use turns out to be true, "these executive orders, pardons, and all other actions are unconstitutional and legally void."
★★★★★
Restorative Justice (per Google AI) seeks to examine the harmful impact of a crime and then determines what can be done to repair that harm while holding the person who caused it accountable for his or her actions. Accountability for the offender means accepting responsibility and acting to repair the harm done. I think most of us have found HB 1125 and SB 5269 to be scary bills, for anyone with common sense. You can go to leg.wa.gov and research a bit to see if you agree.
Let's take these bills, and consider them in light of the low scores on testing in Kitsap County (indeed, nationwide) and think in terms of chronic absenteeism and student crime:
https://app.leg.wa.gov/rcw/default.aspx?cite=28A.225.007
There's something really weird going on with our kids, how we parent, how we keep them engaged in school and learning until they come of age. Students need to be held accountable for something as simple as completing a lesson before recess, as early as 2nd grade. This our schools are often failing to do. Accountability. Maybe THAT is the key. We need to start young, or we lose them, when it comes to responsibility.
★★★★★
One of our fellow Republicans brought to my attention a state government on-line listing of pay-outs of our state taxes. It can be found here: https://fiscal.wa.gov/Spending/Checkbook
One was "Queer Life" for $3,000 and right next to it, the Pacific NW Ballet association for $500 and Seattle Opera for $6,038. Near it, Ted Brown Music Outreach for $10,374. The most modest and most beautiful (at least they work hard!) was the ballet; they apparently have fewer needs and better revenue than the opera. Ted Brown is probably doing pretty good work with poor kids. The Nisqually Tribe got $17,500. All of us, as citizens, can argue which of these organizations, made up of culturally well-meaning citizens, was or wasn't deserving of our hard earned state taxes.
How do you sort out deserving organizations from the more sordid groups? Why are the cities and counties which can levy their OWN taxes, not doing so at the local levels for their OWN schools? (I live in Bremerton and I'm a Creek Indian, I don't feel like paying grants to the Nisqually! ALL tribes get money from the Fed!)
Here is "Park Dietz and Associates" pulling $121,325. From Google, they are a forensics group. Don't we have forensics experts here in Washington state, and why did they have to come here from Newport Beach, CA? Citizens, you have the link. See how many "wastes" of your tax money you can find. Then contact your legislative representatives!!!
Viewer warning: This is nasty stuff. Here is a report on some of the more sordid recipients of your hard-earned Washington state tax dollars.
https://thepostmillennial.com/seattle-state-funded-non-profit-promotes-bondage-jack-off-clubs
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(codified law) Title IX: current status (this is the "men in girls’ sports and locker rooms" thing) There is hope yet.
★★★★★
Senator Drew MacEwan has put out some good videos on what is going on in Olympia during Legislative Session. Here are some interesting ones:
Ferries, public safety, and fixing the state budget: https://youtu.be/ZE04SM3bm9E
Road Usage Charge - A New Tax on Washington Drivers: https://youtu.be/aiRgLOeLHDs
State Republican Senators unveil '$ave Washington' Budget: No New Taxes, Smarter Spending":
https://youtu.be/Ca7aipP1cFQ
★★★★★
Here is another bill that our legislative representatives are fighting against for us. This bill discriminates on the basis of race. We need to support our legislators by responding to this bill.
HB 1696: Modifying the covenant homeownership program.
This Bill recently passed out of the House and moved into the Senate for their consideration. This is still an active issue. You can tell when you follow this link:
https://app.leg.wa.gov/billsummary/?BillNumber=1696&Year=2025&Initiative=false
...and it shows that you can Send a Comment to Your Legislators, and that you can Submit Written Testimony.
A recommendation to everyone do both, clicking oppose and not worrying about a comment beyond, "This is a horrible bill that violates the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S Constitution."
The original program should have been sued out of existence for violating the Equal Protection Clause of the U.S. Constitution. The article to read:
https://www.chronline.com/stories/washington-state-house-passes-bill-to-expand-eligibility-for-program-to-remedy-housing,376596
(Note: The article has two typos: It states the new median income eligibility threshold is being raised from 100% to 140% of median income, however, the bill text shows the eligibility threshold being raised to 120% of median income. Also, the bill number is referred to as SSHB 1996 later in the article. SSHB 1996 is another bad bill but has nothing to do with housing subsidies that mask back door reparations no one voted for.)
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Representative Travis Couture sent out this information about HB 1296.
This bill attempts to gut the parental rights initiative, I-2081, that 450,000 Washingtonians signed and the legislature passed with broad, bipartisan support.
You can watch Representative Griffey and I speak on our positions on the bill, and make votes on the various amendments and the bill on TVW or YouTube. The links to those videos are below:
TVW: https://tvw.org/video/house-floor-debate-march-12-2025031220/?eventID=2025031220
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/live/D3kBXRCUOww
Follow the WA House Republicans on X: https://x.com/wahousegop
Follow the WA House Republicans on Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/wahouserepublicans
Since the approval of Initiative 2081, opponents and OSPI (Office of Superintendent of Public Instruction) have stonewalled any attempt to uphold it, and HB 1296 is the majority party’s latest attempt. I voted against this bill.
This piece of legislation seeks to remove several parental rights found in Initiative 2081, including:
- Removes the right to examine the textbooks, curriculum, and supplemental material used in their child’s classroom.
- Removes the right to access certain public school records, including any medical or health records, including records of any mental health counseling.
- Removes the right to certain immediate notification from schools, including when medical services are offered, or their child is alleged to be the victim of a crime.
Beyond removing those rights, HB 1296 utilizes OSPI to enforce a new state policy with strict penalties, including loss of basic education funding and requiring districts to update their gender-inclusive school policies to include addressing the unique challenges faced by “gender-expansive” students face. All of this is done with an emergency clause, meaning this bill will be prevented from going through the referendum process.
To be clear, this bill is an affront to the citizens who supported Initiative 2081. HB 1296 removes vital rights from parents and the ability for the people to get a say through the referendum process. These kinds of bills are wreaking havoc on school districts who have already been through extremely divisive times. I believe this bill will continue that division and distract schools from their most important duty, the education of students.
If you feel strongly about this issue, please consider testifying or share your position for the legislative record at https://app.leg.wa.gov/pbc/bill/1296.
★★★★★
A VERY intriguing concept came up at our monthly party meeting on March 3. Our Committeewoman Cerina Murphy talked about "NGO Volunteers to protest" and it was so shocking that your humble editor went out and googled the phrase "NGO volunteer to protest."
AI did its thing. All SORTS of interesting links came up as a "paying" opportunity to protest SOMETHING. This is well-known since the Vietnam era: mysterious people would hand students a $10 and ask them to stand and hold a sign at a rally. The point being, all these protests are peopled by paid, often professional protestors. It's easy money. You can scream and be as badly behaved as you want. Some actually enjoy being agitators. There’s opportunity for advancement.
Should we as a party take action on this? What ARE the implications? Who is funding all this? Anyone want to play Sherlock Holmes? Infiltrate? Can our party use this system to counter-act disruptors at public meetings who are trying to destroy our system of free speech? Should we make a law prohibiting such blatant domestic terrorism? It’s hardly “insuring domestic tranquility” to allow weaponization of the 1st Amendment!
★★★★★
Public service announcement: if you have someone in your family who is a caretaker for an older, medically fragile adult, CHECK IN WITH THEM FREQUENTLY. Many of us have followed the sad story of Gene Hackman and his wife. She was 30 years his junior, and was hit hard and suddenly by a pretty ugly illness, a hantavirus. He lived probably a week on his own with just his dogs for companions, wandering with dementia until he fell over from lack of food and water, and ultimately died lying on the floor. It is a statistical fact that in such cases as these, often the person being cared for outlives the caretaker; that's a stat which should scare all of us. Stay in contact! Don't be isolated. Ayn Rand herself died alone too, because no one checked in on HER.
★★★★★
Reading: EXCELLENT historical author: Cameron Judd. Recommended: The Overmountain Men Trilogy. This set of books follows people living in the western North Carolina region c. 1789, how they ran up against hostile natives, white criminals, and struggled for basic survival in our nation's earliest years. Judd is a master story-teller; using real history, he spins facts skillfully into a narrative which has you on the edge of your seat! It is adult in spots, and fairly funny, especially his "sequel" to this trilogy, David Crockett of Tennessee. Anyone interested in politics will get a huge amount of knowledge from reading about David Crockett and his political “ins and outs” during the Jacksonian era.
★★★★★
School Boards are in a dither over test scores dropping like stones, while the cost per student keeps climbing. (FYI ALL districts use a test system called Smarter Balance which is easily accessed on Chromebooks in the classroom.)
Central Kitsap had a serious drop in math scores which cannot be explained. No one yet seems to have correlated WHEN Smarter Balance started being used (2015 thereabouts) and when the scores started to drop (2015 if the graphs are to be believed.) Those of us who understand critical thinking know that "correlation does not mean causation" but it's a stat which bears looking into.
A meta-analysis of ALL the scores in Kitsap county's schools shows Bremerton with terribly low scores (and we have no way of knowing if non-English speaking students are included, this district seems to have more than their share of kids from Guatemala, who are intelligent, but often don't speak Spanish OR English.)
Bainbridge Island has top scores. The good news is CK, NK and SK were all statistically similar (except the anomalous math drop in CK). Since ALL districts use the same test (Smarter Balance) one might be inclined to NOT blame the test, but to look instead at curriculum differences, or discipline statistics (which CK did on 12 March 25) or at socio-economic levels. Above all, parents need to REMAIN positively engaged with teachers and their students.
Remain proactive against dangerous bills like HB 1296.
★★★★★
Resources
Homelessness Resources
Veterans Affairs Homeless Programs: www.va.gov/homeless
VA Homelessness Hotline: Dial 877-424-3838 and Press 1
Narcotics Anonymous: www.kitsapgov.com/pubdef/Pages/AA-and-NA-Meeting-info.aspx
NA help line: 360-215-2616
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Kitsap County Auditor's Office - Elections Information
www.kitsap.gov/auditor/Pages/elections.aspx
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School Board and City Council Notes
KCRP School District Information Page
www.kitsaprepublicans.com/school-districts
Bainbridge Island School District
School board website: www.bisd303.org/40415_3
Bremerton Bremerton School District
School board website: www.bremertonschools.org/SchoolBoard
Documents link: go.boarddocs.com/wa/wabrsd/board.nsf/public
Central Kitsap School District
School board website: www.ckschools.org/administration/c_k_s_d_school_board/school_board
North Kitsap School District
School board website: www.nkschools.org/about-us/school-board
Advisory board website: www.nkschools.org/get-involved/advisory-committees
South Kitsap School District
School board website: www.skschools.org/school-board
Watch school board meetings: vimeo.com/sksd
Board meetings recap: www.smore.com/gp6t2
Many parents in the South Kitsap district have found the "Parent Square" app/link to be very helpful in "being connected" with their district. See www.skschools.org for more information.
City Council
Video archives of city council meetings from all over Kitsap County can be found at:
bremerton.vod.castus.tv/vod/?live=ch1&nav=recent
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