OK. So I watched Zombieland this week. It's awesome. Haven't seen it? Watch it. I've also been reading some short stories about zombies that a surgical technician friend of mine let me borrow. A friend with medical knowledge, well-informed on zombie evading, is always welcome on my team.  This fact, compounded with reading all these damn "List-responder" emails from every damn committee and damn vending machine in the damn Capitol, has led to a myriad of damn incredible recurring zombie government dreams.

I feel like I'm beginning to understand this assignment more and more. But it's made me HELLA paranoid. They could be anywhere, anytime, ready to crash through any window...

It's also led to me to resume working on my "Instant Ex-Patriater" Escape Pod rocket system. I'm aiming it somewhere nice - near the Caribbean - someplace smaller rather than larger, easily defended, with a great natural fruit selection, fishable waters and javelinas. You see, I also watched Apocalypto this week, and the Durant slogan at the beginning about a civilization only being conquered from without after rotting from within got me thinking.

I had made a few technical corrections to the trajectory of my "Instant Ex-Patriater" Escape Pod and was sitting in the cockpit enjoying the view of the sky when I started trying to break down the problems facing our fair state, now with the finally released budget proposals - coming with little more than two weeks left before the regular session heads to special session, which it more than likely will because of shenanigans and all the rancorous partisan bickering. You know, just kicking back and identifying the basic dysfunctions we're seeing in our governmental operations and turning it into human math.

With no income tax, Washington relies heavily on the sales tax. With the economy in the tank, people have less revenue to spend on consumer goods, which means less sales tax revenue. With lost jobs comes heavier reliance on state-supported programs, which means less revenue coming in while more goes out in aid. When they start "trimming" government programs and costs, it usually means more unemployment now coming from the public service side.

Then we have direct environmental concerns on top of that, which could provide an out if we could actually find a way to coalesce supporting increasing funds for education that leads to green engineering and innovation. It doesn't seem like a stretch to suggest such an investment would lead to job growth in an imminent industry with no direction and no definition, a field wide open. We do live in a state full of environmentally aware citizens who are known to be on the forefront of cultural stewardship, after all. Oh, and in dire need of jobs.

It seems like now, more than ever, would be a good time to explore an income tax focused on the upper percentiles of wealth income - just like the Sister Organize for Solidarity have been campaigning for on the steps of the Legislative Building all session-long now.

"Fund Health, Tax Wealth," their slogan goes.

Oregon just did it, and they put the bar low, starting at $150,000. We could easily jack it up to, say, $250,000. Why not charge a tax on collecting ATM fees? The banks put us in this mess with predatory lending practices on low-income people, and the Federal Government let (LET!) Washington Mutual fail. If you're going to tax people for ordering off the internet, out of state, why not charge out of state banks a fee for collecting that bullshit $3 fee from me every time I access my own cash in Washington? That way, the people could feel a little bit better about seeing banks collect record profits and passing out million dollar bonuses - even though we all know they'd then just increase their fee to cover the tax, and we'd be right back at square one, which is sticking it to the poor.

Why not tax non-necessary cosmetic surgery? I'm not talking about skingrafts for burn victims or breast implants for women with double mastectomies. Why not a vanity tax on people who buy new noses to feel better about themselves instead of candy bars and soda, which may not be the healthiest meal, but might be the only meal today for that kid that lives in a neighborhood you'll never go to? (Porn stars and strippers can already write boob jobs off as a business expense, so they're taken care of.) Why not a little Robin Hood action from our brave leaders? Why not take from the rich and give to the poor, like they'd have us all believe they would do in a heartbeat, if only they could get elected for another term.

WHY DON"T THEY LEAD BY EXAMPLE?

If you expect the lowest to sacrifice, you have to be willing to sacrifice at the top. Why doesn't our leadership take some unpaid furloughs, so the common man can have another day's wage and put some food in his kid's mouth? C'mon Chrissy G, you have a law degree. You can bill out whatever you want when you're back in the private sector. But Bob the builder hasn't been building anything but a pile of debt, and now he has to go to the food bank and has two kids that soon won't be able to see the dentist or doctor if the right amount of cuts go into social programs. And if we cut education, then he probably won't be able to afford to go back to school to learn how to do something else.

But this week, we got what we've come to expect - bickering, grandstanding, a kooky photo-op between two opposing egos, and two very unsurprising documents filled with tax hikes everywhere on a strained populace from a party that doesn't want to do it but has no choice. All of this while the other side cries bloody murder, because that's unfortunately the way it seems destine to work until we decide to save money by axing some Senators and Representatives instead of the guys who cook their food.

Legions of the undead already roam our city streets high on drugs because life sucks right now. And legions of the brain-dead, chanting mantras like "November" are already stealing the political ideology of the infamous Tea Party.  - with all of its neatly prepackaged propaganda and without any of its balls. Before we get bold solutions today, we need bold leadership, not a bunch of people worried about getting re-elected.

And we need a populace that realizes a government of the people, by the people, and for the people requires actions from the people to make sure it functions properly - not just people who watch too much TV and press repeat in their brains.