Announcement of candidacy: Ssomo for Washington state

Day 575, 09:04 • Published in USA USA • by ssomo
Photo: Ichiro, area 51 superman


Today , I am announcing my candidacy for Congressman from Washington – the Evergreen state! Many of you probably know me as the incumbent three-term Congressman from Oregon, but many others do not, so let me give a brief bio, then give you my goals & accomplishments in Congress.


My background
I am in my third term in Congress & I’m asking you for a fourth. I am chair the budget committee in Congress. I was recently promoted to Lieutenant General (the #2 slot) in the US Home Guard. I am a former member of the Economic Council and a former ambassador to Greece. I have been playing the game for about 120 days, and recently earned my fourth Hard Worker medal.


Why move to Washington?
It’s true, I am a real life (RL) Oregonian, but I lived in RL Washington for 8 of the last 9 years. I am a RL Husky. I’ve been from Ilwaco to the Peace Arch. I know what the rain shadow is. I know that San Juan Island was the site of the Pig War – which was almost as vicious as the yearly Apple Cup today. So I am connected to RL Washington.

The other reason I’ve moved to Washington for this run is opportunity. Inwegen, your four-term Congressman is stepping down, so you have an open seat. A capable Secretary of State, Inwegen was not a very active Congressman during my three terms. In Oregon, my party (the UIP) has an excellent candidate ready in CaptainCAPS. Rather than hold him back there, I chose to leverage my connection to RL Washington by moving north across the mighty Columbia River. If you want an active, knowledgeable, and independent Congressman, I am the guy you want to vote for.


My mission statement
The strategic aim of the eUSA should be three-fol😛 (a) military strength (b) economic strength & (c) strong diplomatic & economic relations overseas, especially with direct neighbors, to create political & economic stability worldwide.


Accomplishments in Congress
I have already achieved quite a bit in Congress. Let’s look at those.

Item #1 – Budget committee chair –In this role, I drove the drafting and implementation of our current budget. Previously controversial, budget & funding are now accepted as standard operations.

Item #2 – Creation of the Foreign Relations committee – Sadly, we had no such thing, and the crumbling of Atlantis makes our understanding of foreign affairs that much more critical to our national security. This was only created in the last two weeks.

Item #3 – Ambassador of Trade – I first proposed this to the EC and the State Dept two months ago. It was passed overwhelmingly as a resolution one month ago. Negotiations were spurned by the Scrabman administration until last week. And now it appears One Eye is have some measure of success – after weeks of belittling my stance favoring negotiation– in trade talks.

Item #4 – Public Disclosure and Non-Corruption Act – This also passed overwhelmingly. It sets up a system for disclosure by government officials of their business holdings. It also requires that persons running government orgs and businesses to sign a contract vowing not to commingle public and private funds under penalty of permaban.

Item #5 – Formal budget process and calendar – This also passed overwhelmingly. It sets up a process for the orderly transfers of funds from the Treasury account to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and then from the CBO to various government orgs and agencies (such as the Marines), including emergency funding.

Item #6 – Iron import tax increase – I have written extensively about iron as the Achilles Heel of the eUS. This controversial proposal, which would have raised import taxes on iron from 1% to 10%, was voted down 7-35.



Judgment & independence
This is important. You can elect people who do what they’re told – people who act in lockstep based on the opinion of others – or you can elect people who have judgment of their own. I’m not perfect, no one is, but groupthink leads to really bad decisions and we have a lot of groupthink in Congress right now.

I’ll be more specific: We have many members of Congress who are also members of Scrabman’s cabinet. In eRep, that is their right to serve in both roles. But they vote and act as Congress members based on privileged information they receive as cabinet members – information hidden from Congress at large. Information they don't discuss while doing their best to stampede or bully the rest of Congress into voting this way or that.

As such, this setup is a de-facto presidential caucus in Congress – which inherently weakens the institution of Congress itself. A soft PTO, if you will, by the executive branch. This is a dangerous setup approximating how autocratic governments operate in RL. And it is unacceptable.


Wrapping up
Ichiro, right fielder for the Mariners, is my campaign icon. Think of me as your Ichiro in Congress.

My goals have remained intact – only the context has changed. With the typical turnover in Congress being a third of members each session, effectiveness & institutional memory are valuable items that I bring to the table.

To Oregon, I love you & thank you for three months in Congress. To Washington, please consider me as your next Congressman!

God bless you all & may God bless eAmerica!