Archives for March 2009

Matt Taibbi explains to AIG employee Jake DeSantis exactly how he can cry him a fucking river.

Sometimes, you just have to do the right thing…

The last time the state had a comparable budget shortfall was in 1981-1982, when Republicans controlled both houses and the governor’s mansion. The Republicans raised taxes to help deal with their budget woes, and come the 1982 elections, Democrats were elected back into power in both the House and the Senate. Two years later, Republican Gov. John Spellman was voted out as well. In 1993, majority Democrats had to raise taxes and cut programs to deal with budget problems, and in 1994, lost their majority in the House and hung on to a one-seat majority in the Senate.

Gregoire said that history lesson shows it won’t be easy.

“There’s no easy way out of this,” she said. “And you have to look past the political consequences, and do what your heart and your head says is the right thing to do.”

And if the right thing to do is raising some taxes to help the state through these tough economic times, as both Republicans and Democrats have reluctantly done in the past, let’s hope that Gov. Gregoire is able to lead the legislature toward it, the political consequences be damned.

I would like to alert my fan (singular) that I will not be posting for a while due to a long-scheduled vacation. I’m going to go research my cultural heritage at the John Brown Museum and Cabin, in hopes of developing a line of John Brown license plate holders and car antenna flags.

I’m also envisioning some silver on black John Brown mudflaps. I really don’t understand why the accessory options are limited to the Confederate side. This could be an entirely new market.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xy9d47VG4t8[/youtube]

UPDATE: Just awful

So… if I were to urge people to take up arms against batshit-crazy Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), would that be going too far?

It was close, but in a streak of futility that rivals that of the Chicago Cubs, King County’s conservation community once again failed to win its chosen candidate a seat on the board of the King County Conservation District, with (u)SP endorsed Preston Drew edging out HA favorite Mark Sollitto by a 1,357 to 1,199 margin.

Ah well.  I guess the people have spoken.  You know, all 2,757 of them… out of a pool of over 1.1 million registered voters.  That’s a turnout rate of less than 0.25%, compared to the respectable 83.9% of registered voters who turned out last November.

What a stupid, fucking, ridiculous way to run an election.  I mean, why even bother?  Why not just rename the damn thing the King County Conservative District, and save the half-hearted effort to pretend this is an election at all?

No vote-by-mail, no neighborhood polling places, no voter’s pamphlet… not even a goddamn postcard reminding you to vote. Only a handful of blog readers and well-informed activists on either side even knew there was an election, as evidenced by the fact that Sollitto got 43.5% of the vote as a write-in candidate, seven times that of third place David Mauk, who was one of only two names on the ballot.

Standing in line behind Richard Pope at the Bellevue Library voting station, a poll-worker chastised me for talking politics in the polling place, warning that I was violating the law—oh God was I tempted to challenge her to call the cops.  In fact, I wasn’t talking about the race at all, but rather, how stupid, fucking ridiculous the entire KCCD election process is.  I mean, only a 0.25% turnout, and there’s a fucking line?

What a total joke.

Eric Earling of (un)Sound Politics has given up blogging for a paying gig on the other side of the media relations divide.  Eric was a relative voice of reason on (u)SP (even when, as usual, he was dead wrong), and I genuinely wish him the best of luck.

But I’m not nearly as sanguine toward the blog he leaves behind.

After our friend Stefan burnt out or lost interest or went into rehab or whatever has distracted him from blogging, Eric quickly became (u)SP’s most prolific writer, and his departure will surely leave a big hole.  How big?  (u)SP recently went nearly two days without an update (three if don’t count Pudge’s contributions as actual posts), and one of the first rules of blogging is that you don’t keep your audience if you don’t keep up the frequency.

I know how much I’ve come to rely on my HA co-bloggers to keep the content fresh; it will be interesting to see how Stefan copes with losing his top contributor.

It’s not often I have the opportunity to disagree with The Stranger’s David Schmader and the ultra-conservative American Family Association at the same time, but Family Guy is by far the funniest show currently on broadcast television, and I have absolutely no qualms about watching it with my 12-year-old daughter.  (Children benefit from a robust comedy education.)

Sure, Family Guy is offensive and often way over the top, but it is the near total freedom of the creators to both offend and disappoint that makes possible some of the show’s funniest moments.

[flash]http://www.hulu.com/embed/aSjjHG1uriBTSojiT2dZUQ[/flash]

Gross?  Yeah.  Relentless?  Well, that’s kinda the point.  But man did my daughter and I bust a gut watching this scene.

Nothing says “silly” like dismissing the concerns of regular folks.

SIX Democratic legislators have introduced a bill to stop Boeing from threatening to move out of Washington. That’s right: threatening to move. Such is a silly end to a silly story.

Um, I think those six were trying to make a larger point. But I wager the editorial writers know that.

These editorial keepers of the gate, freshly content with their re-installation of Dave Reichert, probably don’t like how this labor bill issue actually became a big story in the first place. As they admit in their editorial, the newspaper can’t possibly abide a law that keeps corporations from forcing workers to attend anti-union pep rallies against their will. So to them, anyone who cares about the issue is silly.

Have you ever noticed that anyone or anything who isn’t approved by The Seattle Times winds up being portrayed as not serious? And the legacy media wonders why people have it in for them. After nearly four decades of class warfare waged against the earning power of regular citizens, a key worker’s rights issue is demoted to a mocking editorial.

Nothing the Seattle Times editorial board (or most editorial boards, frankly) does comes as much of a surprise, especially when it comes to labor issues. Basically these editorial writers are a sort of mini-derivatives trader of the written word, whose currency is not phony-baloney financial products but the equally phony and intellectually dishonest job of defending concentrated and corrupt economic power while trying to appear compassionate, thoughtful and pro-democracy. It’s getting hard and harder to do without reality smacking them in the face, though.

These derivative-editorialists also must make sure only the “right” kind of people and ideas are allowed into the sandbox of democracy, because after all it’s their sandbox. Only certain types of candidates are truly allowed, and while the will of the people must be respected, it need only be respected to a point, or more accurately, along a certain spectrum of conventional thought. Should anyone question excessive militarism or promote clean energy and worker rights too loudly, they risk being sent packing without their pail and shovel.

In the sandbox, it’s okay for corporate lobbyists to put out the word to kill legislation that was likely going to pass, because the media, economic and political elites of this state deem it acceptable practice. Nothing silly about that, for certain. It’s probably the most not-silly thing I can recall while living in this state for the last 19 years, at least in terms of revealing in very stark terms who pulls what levers.

Sadly for these editorial traders in derivative thought, their market is collapsing as badly as the real derivatives market did, and predictably enough newspaper owners have asked for their own bailout in the form of a tax break.

What would be truly silly is wasting taxpayer dollars on a special tax break for newspapers that relentlessly attack and mock the democratic process itself. Given the budget situation, you’d be better off buying some extra paste and construction paper for the wee kiddies; at least first graders have some dignity and original ideas.

This is America, land of laissez-faire promise you know! If The Seattle Times and the rest truly believe in the business uber alles world view they constantly espouse, they don’t need government help. Neo-liberal philosophy itself says so. The grand results of this philosophy touch Washington state households every day in the form of decimated 401(k) statements, job losses, foreclosure notices and ruinous medical bills.

Or is it “silly” to point all that out?

Yesterday morning, Bruce Olson was acquitted of all charges against him. I’ve been following his case (and his wife’s case) for almost a year, and seeing a jury rule in his favor was extremely satisfying. I’ve never met Bruce personally, but I know several people who have, and each of them were certain of his innocence. Yesterday’s verdict makes it abundantly clear that there were no hidden surprises about what he was doing. Bruce and Pamela Olson were the couple that everyone knew them to be, law abiding citizens growing plants that both of them (and their doctor) had discovered to have medicinal value.

When the Olsons were raided back in 2007, the WestNET drug task force initially threw poisoned meat into their yard, presumably to ensure that their dogs wouldn’t be a hindrance to their invasion. Their two puppies required roughly $2000 in vet bills. At the time of the invasion, the Olsons had no plants that were harvestable (it was their first attempt at growing), yet they were being threatened by Kitsap County prosecutors with very serious drug distribution charges. In the effort to fight these bogus charges, they wound up having to sell their home and move into an RV.

The Kitsap County Prosecutor’s motivations in this case remain largely a mystery. There hasn’t been any information provided about their one “witness,” a longtime drug user named Steven Kenney, who was flown up from Oklahoma for the trial and whose story was clearly not believed by jurors. Where did he actually come from? Did he stand to gain anything from his testimony? The prosecutor explained his discredited testimony by saying that he was “nervous.” Hell, I’d be nervous too if I were perjuring myself.

Considering how Pamela Olson’s case unfolded, there should be even more concern about the behavior of Russ Hauge and the Kitsap County Prosecutor’s Office. Pamela was threatened with jail time if she didn’t take a plea bargain. She feared having to go to prison, so she took the deal, even though the verdict this week makes it clear that she was innocent all along (both Bruce and Pamela were tried separately for the same offense stemming from the same raid). Now she has a criminal record and is still unable to use medical marijuana according to the State Department of Corrections’ policy for those on probation. And since this trial has started getting attention, we’ve been learning of even more Kitsap County patients who have ended up in the same boat.

As I’ve written about in the past, this kind of heavy-handed behavior from prosecutors and drug task forces is not that uncommon, although some of the more alarming incidents we’ve seen across the country have generally involved a racial component. A new movie coming out soon called American Violet is based on the story of Regina Kelly, a black woman arrested along with 28 others in Hearne, Texas. Most, if not all, of those arrested were innocent, but many of them took plea deals to get reduced sentences. Kelly didn’t, and was ultimately successful in exposing the corruption.

What’s happening in Kitsap County right now isn’t quite that pernicious, but Hauge is using the same kinds of scare tactics in order to force plea deals that keep the people he’s targeting out of the courtroom – where a jury might discover that they don’t belong there. One of those people, a quadriplegic named Glenn Musgrove, is scheduled to be wheeled into a courtroom in Port Orchard on Friday.

For a while now, activists and patients within the medical marijuana community have been referring to Kitsap County as “Kidnap County.” Now we have a better idea why. The state’s medical marijuana laws are not being honored by the Prosecutor’s office. Patients who try to grow their own plants have been arrested, presumed to be drug dealers, and forced to prove otherwise to a jury – often at great personal expense. This is not how the law is supposed to work, and I hope that Kitsap County residents remember that the next time they vote for their county prosecutor.

Finally, it’s important to look at the actions of the WestNET drug task force. These sorts of drug task forces exist on the premise that rural areas don’t have the resources to adequately enforce drug laws. Unfortunately, these drug task forces tend to be very common places for overzealous policing and outright corruption. Even worse, the Obama Administration has decided to increase funding for these units in the stimulus bill.

Why the WestNET drug task force is being used to bust medical marijuana patients (and finds nothing wrong with poisoning their dogs) rather than trying to go after real criminals is a question that they – and Prosecutor Hauge – need to answer.

While we’re talking about the budget, I’ve got three words of advice for House and Senate Democratic leaders as they ponder their vision of Washington’s future:  Governor Rob McKenna.

I’m as big a fan of Rep. Jay Inslee as any Puget Sound area progressive, and despite some recent harsh words, I’m not unfond of Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown, but in my opinion, either Dem would be the definitive underdog against Republican Attorney General Rob McKenna in the 2012 gubernatorial race.  Really.

Sure, I don’t trust him as far as I can spit, but McKenna is by far the most adept politician in Washington state at the moment.  And while yeah, McKenna is totally in the pocket of Boeing, the realtors, AWB and those corrupt bastards at the BIAW… who in Olympia isn’t these days?

McKenna has meticulously crafted a moderate image despite his conservative credentials and his slavish devotion to the business interests who finance his campaigns, but unlike Dino Rossi, he’s managed to do it without coming off like a used car salesman.  Listen to him on KUOW, or even on my old show on 710-KIRO, and he comes off eminently reasonable and rational… even likeable, in his own gawky, geeky sorta way.

But most importantly, he has made a career out of pandering to a political press corps that lovingly felates him in return.  McKenna’s communications people are good.  How good?  When I lost my radio show, his was the only state office from which I received a personal note of condolence and best wishes.

Keep your friends close and your enemies closer, and all that.

So again, as Democrats in Olympia ponder what to do with their huge majorities during these extraordinary times, I hope they fully understand that their window for effectively using these majorities may soon be coming to a close.  In another few years Republican Gov. Rob McKenna may be setting the agenda and wielding the veto pen.  And if I were betting man, I’d bet he will.

The podcast opens with Joel Connelly discussing his new job at the region’s newest media venture called Seattlepi.com.

Seattle has an upcoming mayoral race, and the big news is that Mayor Greg Nickels will actually have some opponents. Michael McGinn announced his candidacy earlier in the day, and then there’s The Stranger’s Dan Savage with his own announcement, and, maybe, Former City Councilman Peter Steinbrueck will do so. Nickels’ insta-spokesperson, Sandeep Kaushik, helps the panel sort through the candidates’ strengths and weaknesses.

In what may be the wonkiest half-hour in all of podcasting history, the panel kicks around the problems with and solutions to the $9 billion revenue shortfall in the State budget. Will Goldy save Washington State? Listen and find out.

Goldy was joined by Aisling Kerins of fuse, PubliCola contributor and political spokes-mercenary Sandeep Kaushik, The Other Side’s John Wyble, and Seattlepi.com’s Joel Connelly.

The show is 54:56, and is available here as an MP3:

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_mar_24_2009.mp3]

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for hosting podcastingliberally.com.]

Despite the fact that the state now faces an unprecedented $9 billion revenue shortfall—nearly 25-percent of what’s needed to maintain services at current levels—the Republicans and their editorial board surrogates are still demanding that Gov. Gregoire stick by her campaign rhetoric and reject any proposed tax or fee increase.  So… what exactly would an all-cuts budget look like?  Well, we’re about to find out.

This biennium it’s the Senate’s turn to lead off budget negotiations, and word in the Capitol hallways is that an all-cuts draft is being prepared for release early next week.  I don’t have the details—they’re still being nailed down—but it isn’t hard to speculate.  A hundred thousand people cut from the state’s Basic Health plan?  20-percent from higher education?  Elimination of funding for community health clinics and many out-patient programs for the elderly and the disabled?  Temporary closure of many state parks? A dramatic reduction in ferry service?  Early release for non-violent prisoners?

Whatever it is, it’s going to be devastating, and it will be interesting to see the all-cuts proponents’ response.  No doubt some will cynically charge that Senate Democratic Leaders are merely trying to scare voters, but it’s hard to see how a 25-percent revenue shortfall can result in anything but devastating cuts in basic services and elimination of whole swaths of our health and social safety net… especially with about half of the budget completely off the table.

About 45-percent of the state budget is dedicated to K-12 education, with a constitutionally mandated obligation to fund basic education protecting the bulk of its funding.  Sure, the class size and teachers pay initiatives will be suspended, and a few other “extras” slashed or eliminated, but the state has little if any room to achieve substantial cost-savings within the biggest chunk of its budget.  Add to that fixed costs in our prisons, courts, police and other law enforcement and public safety services, and we’re left with only about a third of our state budget that can possibly be considered discretionary.

Thus even if the self-proclaimed fiscal hawks are right that the $9 billion figure is exaggerated, the shortfall softened by a few billion dollars in federal stimulus aid and a billion dollars from our rainy day fund, we’re still talking about 40-percent cuts from the portion of the budget that can absorb any substantial cuts at all.  And don’t kid yourselves that those cuts will be temporary.  The federal aid and rainy day funds are one-off windfalls, and even when the economy starts to recover, it won’t likely recover fast enough or strong enough to make up the difference by the next biennium.

Yes, this budgetary crisis was largely precipitated by a sudden collapse in home sales and consumer spending, but these revenues will never return to former levels.  The real estate bubble, like the dot.com bubble before it, is gone for the forseeable future, and with it the revenue growth that has long masked our state’s long term structural revenue deficit.  The highly regressive retail sales and excise taxes on which we rely for the bulk of our revenues are levied on an ever shrinking portion of our post-industrial, service and information based economy:  the sale of material goods.  Thus unless we raise taxes, or dramatically restructure our tax system to meet the reality of the twenty-first century, state and local government will continue to shrink as a portion of our total economy, and with it,  the services taxpayers have come to expect and demand.

When the Senate budget is released next week we will have an opportunity to examine one vision of Washington’s future… a vision much closer to that of Alabama or Mississippi than the one we hold now.  It is a vision that will surely make many Republicans happy.

And it would be a shame if Democrats allowed the minority to achieve their vision by default.