Archives for February 2009

The Seattle Times editorial board urges the King County Council to appoint a “noncandidate” to serve out the end of Ron Sims’ term as Executive:

The best plan is to name an individual who is a noncandidate for the job in November. A candidate likely will be too distracted by the coming primary and general elections to really hunker down and fix the county’s undeniable budget problems.

Nonpartisan noncandidates.  Because, you know… the last person you’d ever want to fill a political office is a… um… politician.

Reading the Times’ editors write about politics is kinda like reading a movie reviewer who hates going to the movies.

I found this glossy flier while going through my pile of mail this week. It came from the Timberlake church in Redmond…

“No weird stuff”?

That a church would place such a comment at the top of their advertisement is telling about the public perception of religion in America.

A couple of decades ago, Christians were just…Christians. But this changed with the rise of televangelism. A relatively small segment of the fundamentalist Christian right proclaimed themselves the “moral majority” and openly pushed a political agenda. To the majority of Americans this unholy commingling of religion and politics was uncomfortable at best, bordering on weird.

Over the last couple of decades the weirdness has accelerated to the point that it seems everything we hear about “religion” in the mainstream media now comes off as weird. If there isn’t something criminal being discussed then there’s probably politics involved. The “revolutionary suicides” of Jonestown and the Branch Davidians showdown were specular specimens in their day.

Today the weirdness has become a lot more normalized, so that “weirdness” seems to underly most of the media’s coverage of religion. We learn about the Westboro Baptist Church’s “God hates fags” protests, Sarah Palin receiving a blessing of protection against witchcraft, Rev. Hagee’s holocaust comments, Rev. Wright’s damnation of America, Rev. Rick Warren’s anti-gay crusade, Pastor Ted Haggard’s male prostitute problem, almost everything coming out of William Donohue’s mouth (like the evils of a Chocolate Jesus last year). The list goes on and on. Locally, we’ve even had our own special strain of weird in a homophobic Rev. Ken Hutcherson and his “Prayer Warrior” communiqués.

So we get “no weird stuff” from a church apparently trying to distance itself from the contemporary stereotype of American religion. And some Christians are becoming sensitive about how they are labeled.

I don’t think the labels are the real problem. Rather it’s the commingling of religion and politics that has nudged the image of religion out of the mainstream.

A local pol, via email, rightly rants about our media’s googly-eyed infatuation with bipartisanship:

What the stupid media don’t realize is that it’s a tactic, not a goal. The goal is to get something accomplished. If that something requires bipartisanship to do it, so be it. If it doesn’t, who cares. They’ve made the classic mistake of not caring what the goal is, as long as it’s bipartisan. It’s not a surprising conclusion, really, as long as you frame in the media’s so-called “objectivity” frame. That frame forces themselves to gravitate to the holy grail of bipartisanship, because they are too lame to call some actual goals bullshit, or praise some as actually being worthy. Thus their choices comes down to partisan=bad, bi-partisan=good. No wonder why people have stopped reading their drivel.

And in my opinion, it’s even worse than that, because good or bad, the very notion of “bipartisanship” is usually as illusory as that whole “objectivity” crap.

For example… Obama goes to the Hill.  He meets with Republicans on their turf.  The Dems compromise, making the stimulus package smaller, less progressive, and less effective.  And then House Republicans still vote unanimously against it, including our own local, conscience-driven independent, Dave Reichert.  Bipartisanship my ass.

See, the problem is, even as a tactic, bipartisanship is pointless if not counterproductive if you don’t have an honest, trustworthy partner across the aisle.  And currently, the Dems don’t.

I’m reading Jared Diamond’s latest book, Collapse:  How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed, and I was struck by this passage regarding forest fires in Montana:

Many homeowners sue the Forest Service if their house burns in a forest fire, or if it burns in a backfire lit by the Forest Service to control a much bigger fire, or if it doesn’t burn but if a forest providing a pretty view from the deck of their house does burn.  Yet some Montana homeowners are afflicted with such a rabidly anti-government attitude that they don’t want to pay taxes towards the costs of firefighting, nor to allow government employees onto their land to carry out fire prevention measures.

And I couldn’t help but think of our current public debate over raising taxes to help offset our state’s expanding revenue deficit, or rather, the complete and utter lack of such a debate at all.  Nobody likes taxes, but we sure do like the services they buy, and it is simply irresponsible for the governor and the legislature to attempt to balance this budget without even considering targeted tax increases, because, you know… they’re unpopular.

What the P-I said:

If a government utility discovers it has been underbilling a resident for electricity, the homeowner can expect to pay, perhaps with a bit of extra time. Everyone sympathizes with the homeowner, but no one expects the government to give away something valuable without payment.

The state constitution forbids it, in fact.

A Building Industry Association of Washington program apparently has been receiving state overpayments of millions of dollars. The state’s course should be to get the money back.

Due to a programming error, the BIAW has been reaping retro-rebate overpayments since 1994, and then using the money to back right-wing causes and candidates.  And now they argue they should be allowed to keep most of those overpayments because, you know, it wasn’t their fault.

Well fuck that.

BIAW and other retro programs should pay back the entire amount—the first few years worth immediately, and then the remainder deducted from future retro payments over a reasonable term… say, the next five years.  This isn’t their money, and they have no right to keep.

Which of course raises a broader issue:  this isn’t their money.  And particularly now, during this economic crisis, it is time for the legislature to consider reforms that put more of the money back into the pockets of workers and small business owners, where it belongs, rather than into the coffers of partisan political organizations like BIAW.

So yesterday was the ten year anniversary of the not guilty verdict for Bill Clinton at his Senate impeachment trial.

Shortly after I called Slade Gorton’s office that day in early 1999 to promise that Gorton would be defeated for voting to convict, some pussy called my phone and left a message pretending to be from the IRS, threatening me with an audit. I knew it was bullshit because the stupid fuck sounded like some young dumb fascist idiot. You know, a typical Republican.

Anyhow, I never could find out who it was, but to all the former Slade Gorton staffers out there, fuck you. Journalists may have to play pretend, but regular people know and remember how we were treated. Again, fuck you, you stupid Slade Gorton staffer. Who’s laughing now?

Oh wait, I do remember who called me. But I’ll just keep that to myself for now.

And Fuck Bi-partisanshit. I swear to God, the next time a journalist starts in about “bi-partisanship” I’m going to tear my lush, luxurious head of hair out. There is no bi-partisanship with these people, they are insane and their supposedly reasonable (“Moderate!”) leaders and workers have been insane for a very long time.

People who work for Congress should not call constituents and threaten them with retaliation from the IRS. That’s fascist bullshit, and the fact that anyone in the cesspool would find it acceptable kind of tells you what kind of sick minds we are dealing with. This kind of shit pre-dated Bush the Younger.

To bring it up to the present day, Obama can give good press conference all he wants. It’s awesome and he even inspires a cynic like me. But his administration needs to fully understand that the Republican Party is composed of political sociopaths, and deal with them accordingly.

So according to this nice internet astrology person, on Valentine’s Day the Moon Will Really Be in the Seventh House, and Jupiter Will Align With Mars!

Valentine’s Day 2009 is the actual Dawning of the Age of Aquarius. I shit you not. The mind’s true liberation, etc.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w3I1y3jHgxA[/youtube]

I must say that as an Aquarian who is married to a woman born on the same day of the same year, albeit a thousand miles apart, I am kind of enthused about this.

Plus I had this song burned into my brain as a child riding around the suburbs in a white and red AMC Gremlin with pushbutton AM radio.

Good times.

Sen. Judd Gregg, R-BIPARTISANHAPPYLAND, has abruptly withdrawn his kind offer to be Secretary of Commerce, after lobbying really really hard for the job.

Cable tee-vee says Gweggy not happy wid stwimulus, taking banky and going home.

Good riddance.

Another victory for bipartisanship!

Housing prices continued to drop late last year and foreclosures are still a very troubling problem. From Bloomberg:

Home prices dropped the most on record in the fourth quarter as foreclosures dragged down values and the recession pushed buyers out of the market.

The median price of a U.S. home declined 12 percent from a year earlier and sales of properties with mortgages in default accounted for 45 percent of all transactions, the Chicago-based National Association of Realtors said today. Prices declined in almost nine out of every 10 cities.

The Columbian gives us a sense of the situation in Washington state:

Clark County received the second-highest foreclosure ranking out of Washington’s 39 counties. One in every 400 households were in some stage of foreclosure countywide last month, RealtyTrac said.

In January, Pierce County ranked No. 1, with one in every 393 housing units in foreclosure in January. King County ranked No. 6, with one in every 795 homes affected by foreclosure. Statewide, one in every 874 households was in foreclosure last month.

Both articles give the sense that job losses are now playing a bigger role in foreclosures, underscoring the need for the stimulus package, as imperfect as it may be. Whether it can do what it is intended to do, namely stop a spreading and worsening economic disaster, is an open question.

Behind all the statistics are real people, of course. You probably talk to friends and neighbors who report job cuts at their employer, or at the very least severe belt-tightening. The irony, of course, is that regular folks then start clamping down on their own personal spending, exacerbating the troubles. The fear becomes self-fulfilling.

It’s not enough to urge people to spend money, there has to be a sense in the country that we are turning the corner. The stimulus package is part of that, but the other big part is dealing with Big Shitpile. It’s understandable that the new administration is still working on that, but “setting piles of money on fire,” as Atrios calls it, does little to inspire confidence and end fear.

Somehow, the administration has to come up with a workable plan to re-organize the financial sector. If we can’t call it “nationalization” because that’s too scary and pinko, fine. Call it a “restructuring award” and get on with it.

Is Gov. Gregoire being coy?

Asked to list the top impediments to business in the state, Gregoire said she would like to overhaul the business and occupation tax, the state’s main tax on businesses. Calling the tax “ill-conceived” and harmful to small businesses, she invited business leaders to develop a plan for changing the system.

“If you want to come forward with an alternative to the B&O tax system in the state of Washington, the welcome mat is out from me,” Gregoire said.

I suppose there might be a number of B&O alternatives, including a Value Added Tax, or perhaps no business tax at all, but in inviting business leaders to develop their own plan, it certainly sounds like Gov. Gregoire is inviting them to propose a corporate income tax… a surprising invitation from a governor who has repeatedly dismissed even the notion of starting a conversation on such reforms. Encouraging, sure, though considering the longstanding split in our business community over this issue, if she really wants to overhaul the B&O tax, our negotiator-in-chief is going to have to do a helluva lot more than just put out the welcome mat.

The B&O tax is not only “ill-conceived,” it is an historical anomaly. In 1932 Washington voters overwhelmingly approved a personal and corporate income tax, overhauling a tax system that had previously over-relied on property taxes, but when the Supreme Court controversially ruled the new income tax unconstitutional while leaving the new property tax limits in place, the state was thrown into a budgetary crisis. The B&O tax was created as part of a hasty, and presumably temporary, political compromise.

75 years later, Washington’s B&O tax—a tax on gross receipts, rather than profits—remains just as ill-conceived as the day it was implemented, especially during this economic downturn when many businesses are forced to pay taxes on their losses. But while business leaders love to bitch about the B&O’s complexity and burden, they’ve thus far been unwilling to work together to propose a reasonable replacement.

Washington remains one of only five states without an income tax, and while Gov. Gregoire is right that there is currently little public support for a personal income tax, I doubt there would be much public opposition to the corporate variety, if that’s what the business community chooses for itself. And while such a revenue neutral reform would do little to address our long term structural revenue deficit, it would at least be a first step toward that conversation that Gov. Gregoire insists voters have no interest in starting.

Dominic Holden gives his perspective on the choice of Chief Kerlikowske for Drug Czar.

Robert Reich has some limited praise for the Geithner plan, but also some worries. After pointing out that the Federal Reserve has committed $2.5 trillion, yet nobody knows exactly what the heck they are doing, he observes:

In other words, Geithner and Fed Chair Ben Bernanke continue to do pretty much what Hank Paulson and Bernanke did: They hide much of the true costs and risks to taxpayers of repairing the banking system. Those risks and costs should be put on the people who made risky bets on the banks in the first place – namely bank shareholders and creditors. Shareholders of the most troubled banks should be wiped out entirely. Bank creditors- except depositors – should take major hits. And top executives who were responsible should be canned. But Geithner and Bernanke don’t want to take these steps for fear of spooking the Street. They think it’s safer to put the costs and risks on taxpayers — especially in ways they can’t see.

Oh boy. I cannot even begin to fathom the political reaction in this country if the Fed had to, in effect, be bailed out because of this.

May you live in interesting times.

Compromise.

WASHINGTON (AFP) — Key US lawmakers agreed Wednesday on an economic revival plan of some 800 billion dollars and prepared to vote as early as Thursday to send the package to President Barack Obama, a top senator said.

As we learn more details, it will be interesting to see how much was put back for the wee kiddies. Apparently we have to destroy their schools to save them from the horrors of massive public debt, now that the money is being used to actually help people instead of blow things up.

Still, the histrionics from some Repubs is pretty hilarious. What’s actually horrifying to Americans is fat cats on Wall Street and in D.C. continuing to enrich themselves while the economy implodes. Debt is a long-term problem, but when the house is on fire worrying about the water bill is insanity. But then, Republicans always seem to focus on the wrong thing, it’s congenital with them.

Look over there! It’s a Fairness Doctrine! Ooga-booga!

UPDATE 2:21 PM PST– Or maybe the deal isn’t done?

According to both local and White House sources, President Barack Obama will nominate Seattle Police Chief Gil Kerlikowske as director of the Office of National Drug Control Policy—a cabinet-level position commonly referred to as the Drug Czar—an appointment that could signal a substantive departure from our nation’s current marijuana-focused, interdiction-heavy drug policy, and a more realistic and progressive approach toward the issue of drug abuse in general.

Within the context of career law enforcement professionals, I think it safe to label Kerlikowske a “progressive.”  During his ten-years at the helm of the Seattle Police Department and his current term as president of the Major Chiefs Association, Kerlikowske has been a vocal advocate for gun control and community policing, while serving as a prominent critic of the use of intrusive data mining techniques as a tool for combating domestic terrorism.  But while he hasn’t been particularly outspoken on drug control policy, Kerlikowske’s relative silence is encouraging in itself, considering the progressive mores and statutes of the city whose laws he has enforced for the past decade.

While Kerlikowske opposed a  2003 citizens initiative making marijuana in Seattle a “low priority crime,” calling the measure vague and confusing (and… well… most initiatives are), he emphasized to local reporters at the time that marijuana possession and use already was a low priority, and in fact, Seattle’s already low marijuana prosecution rate has dropped even further since the measure’s passage, indicating a responsiveness to the will of the voters.  Indeed, local drug reform advocates seem downright ecstatic about Kerlikowske’s appointment:

“Oh God bless us,” said Joanna McKee, co-founder and director of Green Cross Patient Co-Op, a medical-marijuana patient-advocacy group. “What a blessing — the karma gods are smiling on the whole country, man.”

McKee said Kerlikowske knows the difference between cracking down on the illegal abuse of drugs and allowing the responsible use of marijuana.

Kerlikowske’s laissez faire approach toward low-level possession fits well with our region’s libertarian streak and its progressive attitudes toward medical marijuana, needle exchanges and other drug issues.  Seattle has long been home to one of the largest Hempfests in the nation, where otherwise law abiding participants routinely light up in front of police officers without fear of arrest.  Meanwhile, Kerlikowske’s predecessor, Chief Norm Stamper, has established himself since leaving office as one of the nation’s most outspoken advocates for comprehensive drug policy liberalization and reform.  Yet despite the dire warnings of drug war hard liners, Seattle’s crime rate has dropped to a 40-year low during Kerlikowske’s tenure.

Kerlikowske’s office has not avoided controversy, particularly over accusations of lax discipline of officers, but he is widely admired.  Speaking on our Podcasting Liberally podcast last night, Seattle City Councilmember Tim Burgess, a former police officer, and current chair of the committee that oversees the police department, agrees that Kerlikowske is “no Bill Bennett,” and credits him for a “progressive” approach toward drug control issues:

Clearly the drug war as it has been waged traditionally in our country over the last 20, 30 years is not working, and there is a lot of collateral damage that’s unintended but is real, that is not helping us in that regard.  Chief Kerlikowske himself has been advocating some diversion programs, pre-arrest strategies, that are quite progressive.

Of course, Kerlikowske is no Norm Stamper either, but given the history of the Drug Czar office, his appointment should hearten those advocating for a more humane, rational and effective national drug control policy.

Damned with faint praise:

“Everybody’s really glad they reached a decision,” said Sen. Mary Margaret Haugen, D-Camano Island, chairwoman of the Senate Transportation Committee. She said the intention is to approve the design during the current legislative session.

“The tunnel,” said Sen. Dan Swecker, R-Rochester, the Senate committee’s ranking GOP member, “seems to be something that’s got critical mass.”

That, my friends, is what politicians say when they are invited to polish a turd.

But this one is my favorite:

On Friday, Chopp said there are questions about how to pay for possible tunnel cost overruns. “Additional questions are being raised around transportation capacity, for example going from six lanes down to four,” he said, but for the moment he’s focused on the state budget and relief for families and businesses.

Doesn’t Chopp’s own Viaduct vision also reduce waterfront capacity from six lanes to four?