Archives for March 2009

There’s outrage.

American International Group, the insurer that has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.

And then there’s north Clark County wingnut outrage.

But the 18th Legislative District’s three Republican lawmakers were spending this particular Saturday afternoon deep in the belly of Southwest Washington conservatism — feeling its bile and talking to its ribs.

They were, in other words, at Battle Ground City Hall.

“There are 15 and a half million illegals in this country that are taking American jobs right now!” boomed Chuck Miller of Camas, a flag pin on his Minutemen Border Patrol baseball cap, to applause and murmured amens.

In the audience, small-business owners and retirees passed around John Birch Society literature and chatted about conservative icons like Michael Savage and Maricopa, Ariz., County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Well, I do understand the need for the Birchers to do something about the Soviet Union, it’s a real threat. If we don’t win in Vietnam the dominoes will tumble and there will be commies invading through Central America and Mexico any day.

Wolverines!

Pass the black helicopters, please.

A Seattle Times headline tells us that the “State budget comes down to unpleasant choices.”

Kicking kids off health insurance and out of college, laying off tens of thousands of employees, reducing sentences of state inmates, eliminating social services when they’re desperately needed most… choices like that are merely “unpleasant.”

Oh.  Well, I guess in that case, the Times ed board is right in arguing for a cuts-only budget.  We can certainly handle a little unpleasantness if it means keeping a few more dollars in our wallets.

– Be careful when driving with soap, peppermint, oregano, or any number of other substances that test positive as illegal drugs in widely used field tests.

– Some Oregon lawmakers (2 Republicans and 2 Democrats) are trying to overhaul their medical marijuana law. They want the state to control production and ban private growing. Then, they want to tax medical marijuana patients at $98-per-ounce. That’s twice as much as what was proposed in a California bill for recreational users.

I guess in a time of economic distress like the present, our nation’s cancer and MS patients need to step up and pay their share for once.

– On a similar subject, Josh Farley reports on the Bruce Olson trial in the Kitsap Sun.

– As the marijuana decriminalization bill dies in the House, two University of Washington researchers, Katherine Beckett and Steve Herbert, explain why they made a mistake:

[Read more…]

Apparently Tim McVeigh was an Iraqi secret agent.

And just when I was working up a good head of steam to quit the Democratic Party. The two party system, what a joy it is sometimes. You get your choice between a conservative, anti-worker, anti-consumer party or Republicans.

No, I’m not turning gay, and God no, I’m not turning Republican, but as Michael has already reported on BlatherWatch, I’ll be filling in for Ken Schram on KOMO 1000’s The Commentators, Monday March 23 and Tuesday March 24th.

It’ll be a bittersweet moment for me, working for the competition.  I got my start at 710-KIRO, when really, I didn’t deserve a shot at all.  With zero radio hosting experience on my resume and a nasally tenor that makes Woody Allen sound like James Earl Jones, then PD Tom Clendening rolled the dice and plugged me in one evening as a last minute fill-in.  A week later, I had my own Sunday night show, and six months after that they added Saturday night to my schedule.

It was great fun, and a tremendous honor, especially those days I got to fill in for the incomparable Dave Ross, and I would have been proud to have continued advancing my radio career at KIRO, but the station was sold, new management came in, and alas, they moved in a different direction.  I was deeply disappointed when my show was canceled, but you can’t really ask for more in life than a chance to prove yourself, and that I had.

I hope Michael’s wrong when he writes that “there’s no going back to Bonneville to fill-in now that Goldy has gone to Fisher”—I figure, I’m not bitter, so why should they be?—but I’ve got to take the opportunities that come my way, and I couldn’t ask for a better opportunity to get back on the air than going toe to toe with John Carlson, arguably the preeminent conservative talker in the state.  My first time in a radio studio was on John’s old show back on KVI, and both he and Kirby not only gave me tons of air time, they also provided a lot of off-air support when I decided to pursue a radio gig of my own.

So going up against John again, this time as a co-host, will be kinda like coming home for me.  But don’t you worry about me getting all nostalgic like… I still plan to kick his ass.

Consider this in a report by Brad Shannon of The Politics Blogs at The Olympian:

The names of House Speaker Frank Chopp or members of the House and Senate leadership teams clearly are not among the recipients. Lawmakers who did get secondary copies via the “cc” list include Rep. Mike Sells, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Sen. Joe McDermott, and Rep. Tami Green.

My source says all are sponsors or supporters of the labor legislation and could not have been “threatened” by the email in any fashion. The source also said the email was the result of a conversation between labor representatives who met Monday to talk about strategy for getting the so-called privacy act passed. The contents of the message were intended for attendees at that meeting, but Johnson appears to have copied others — the mistake that the labor council said it had made in its news release issued this week about the incident.

Just for the record, the primary list of recipients appears to consist of labor people — including representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, Washington Federation of State Employees, Teamsters Joint Council No. 28, laborers union, and others. The secondary list also has labor people.

Wow, someone hit “send.” Pass the smelling salts. I’ve never sent an intemperate email in my entire life.

So what we’re left with is that the “Big Three,” namely Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown decided to get out of a tough vote on a worker’s rights issue by calling the cops on the labor council. I’m sorry, that’s the only way to read this thing, other than concluding that all three of them need to be committed.

I gotta tell you, the mind boggles. These so called leaders are so much more fucked up than I even imagined. They called the fucking cops on the state labor council.

Tell me again, dear leaders, how progressives should support a tax increase. Because you’re going to have to make a pretty damn compelling argument, and if you drag my kids’ schools into the discussion, I’m going to have no choice but to assume you are bargaining in bad faith.

Because “bad faith” pretty much describes this Democratic state government, despite some movement forward on a few issues.

In justifying the state Democratic leadership’s decision to throw the WSLC under a bus as a convenient excuse for killing the controversial Workers Privacy Act, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown issued a statement saying we have to “draw the line” between the offending email and the “normal process.”

Huh.  Which I suppose begs the question:  what exactly is the normal process?

Back in 2004, House Democrats sent a fundraising letter to business groups that had recently given more money to R’s than to D’s, exhorting them to balance their generosity… 

“As a result of our research, we would like to ask that you consider balancing out your contribution history by writing a donation of $10,000 to the Harry Truman Fund,” concludes the letter obtained by the Seattle Post-Intelligencer. “We would very much appreciate your generosity and support as we gear up for the 2004 legislative session and impending campaign season.

“Our Leadership team wants to maintain our open door policy with you.”

So, is that the normal process, encouraging the inference that money equals access?  House Speaker Frank Chopp seemed to think so, vigorously defending both the ethics and legality of his fundraising efforts.

“Since when is it a crime to talk about having an open door and bringing people together? … The only limit on me meeting with people is my time,” said House Speaker Frank Chopp, D-Seattle. “That’s hardly threatening language. … That’s pretty soft language.

“And that’s pretty common language.”

No doubt.  So if that’s the normal process, when did it become a crime for constituency groups to talk about withholding future financial support from politicians who refuse to support their agenda?  I thought that’s the whole point:  we work for and give money to only those candidates who generally vote our way.  

Of course, Frank knows as well as anybody that this is the way the system works, and for all the effort to make labor look like the unethical bad guys here, it is the business lobby that has recently honed influence peddling into one of Olympia’s most profitable professions.  So profitable in fact, that one of the lobbyists who brokered Boeing’s $4 billion 7E7 tax break, conducts workshops teaching other businesses how to “Turn Your State Government Relations Department from a Money Pit into a Cash Cow.”

The seminar, presented during a portion of the annual three-day meeting of the State Government Affairs Council, taught dozens of corporate government-relations executives how to “Turn Your State Government Relations Department from a Money Pit into a Cash Cow.” Michael Press, national director of Ernst & Young’s Business Incentives Practice, and Robin Stone, former vice president of state and local government relations for The Boeing Company, delivered the Microsoft PowerPoint-supported presentation March 26 in Savannah, Ga.

The presentation includes a long list of “negotiable incentives” along with such such helpful tips as “control publicity,” “avoid legislation if possible,” and “be mindful of the election cycle,” while encouraging businesses to make a “but for” the incentives threat.  (You know, “but for a multi-billion dollar tax break, we’re moving all our jobs out of state.”)

Turning your state government relations department into a cash cow is perfectly legal, and just plain smart business, and from the lack of moralizing on the part of our politicians and opinion leaders, I can only assume that it is perfectly ethical as well.  So what’s so wrong, by comparison, about labor using the resources at its disposal to influence the legislation it wants? Why shouldn’t unions be able to say what we all understand to be true:  “If you don’t support us, we won’t support you?”  

Ethical or not, isn’t that the “normal process?”

So how much of “conscience driven independent” is Rep. Dave Reichert?

“Twice, Representative Reichert could have voted to support major improvements to E Sammamish Lake Parkway, Route 162 in Orting and upgrades to the transit network in Eatonville – and put Washingtonians to work.  And twice, Reichert just said ‘no’ to what’s best for King and Pierce Counties,” said Andy Stone, Western Regional Press Secretary for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Fortunately, the economic stimulus bill passed without his support, so Reichert’s home district will get these federal dollars anyway.  But no thanks to him.

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What does it say about the state of our current news media when the most anticipated and insightful news coverage and analysis of the week is coming from a fake news show? Really… watch the whole thing.

The subject matter aside, what I find most instructive here is the way Jon Stewart’s total lack of pretense and decorum results in one of the most brutally honest interviews you will ever have the privilege of watching on TV.  Unfettered by the journalistic shackles of objectivity and fairness (and even free to employ—gasp—foul language when appropriate), Stewart manages to level a devastating critique of the financial news industry, while demonstrating by example the sort of pander-free directness that is too often missing from traditional coverage.

At one point Stewart rails against “the gap between what CNBC advertises itself as, and what it is,” telling Jim Cramer, “Look, we’re both snake oil salesmen to a certain extent, but we do label the show as snake oil here…” a critique that mirrors some of my own complaints about our local news media.  After years of newsroom cutbacks, the all important space between stenography and opinion has shrunk to the point where news-papers are fast becoming neither, and yet when you hear many of the legacy journalists talk about their own sacred role in our democracy versus that of the barbarian bloggers at the gate, you’d think that nothing has changed but the business model.

But it is not just the Internet or the economy that is driving down both subscription and ad revenues; it is the product itself. Publishers like to console themselves by pointing to their rising online readership, but, well, you get what you pay for… which may help explain why so many readers today prefer to get their news for free.

Back in college, my roommates and I once bought a used, black naugahyde couch, despite the bizarrely sleazy pitch from the aging salesman, who amongst other things, offensively described the couch as a “pussy magnet.”

I guess this is what he was talking about.

As part of an effort by the National Science Foundation to enhance numeracy and improve math education, the U.S. House today passed a resolution designating March 14 (a.k.a. 3-14) Pi Day. The resolution passed on a 391-10 vote:

“I’m kind of geeked up about it,” Rep. Brian Baird (D-Wash.) told POLITICO. “It’s crazy, but I’m a whole lot more excited about that than congratulating the winner of last year’s Rose Bowl.

“I’m not making this up. I have been fascinated by pi since I was a kid. It blows my mind. It’s lovely. The fact that it’s sort of this infinite number. I just think it’s this magical thing. … There’s a real beauty to mathematics.”

That’s the problem with Baird: he’s so…irrational.

EFFWA wants you!

The following is a list of CONFIRMED Tea Party Tax Revolts planned within the state of Washington. Please note that we ONLY list events happening on April 15th.

————-
City: Olympia
When: April 15, noon
Where: Olympia, Capitol Steps
Contact: Evergreen Freedom Foundation
PO Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507
P: 360.956.3482 | F: 360.352.1874
www.effwa.org
Other Info: Push Back!
Facebook Group: N/A

I first watched the movie Alien in a center city Philadelphia theater, where, um, audience participation was more of an accepted part of the film-going culture than in my bland, white suburb, and during that horrific dinner table scene where the alien bursts through the chest of a writhing John Hurt, a fellow theatergoer relieved the tension by yelling at the screen:  “Well, if you didn’t like the spaghetti, you could’ve just said so!”

That’s kinda my reaction to yesterday’s manufactured scandal over the now dead Workers Privacy Act.  If they didn’t like the bill, they could’ve just said so, but state Democratic leaders certainly didn’t have to make such a big scene about it.

Passage of the Workers Privacy Act was one of labor’s top priorities during the current session, so when Gov. Chris Gregoire, Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown and House Speaker Frank Chopp issued a joint statement early yesterday morning announcing that they were shelving the bill due to “serious legal and ethical questions,” and forwarding a labor email over to the state patrol for further investigation, I feared I’d be covering a scandal of Blagojevichian proportions.

But after finally reading a leaked copy of the email, which turned out to be a communication between labor stakeholders summarizing a strategy conference call… well… not so much.

Union leaders would send a message to the State Democratic party and to the Truman and Roosevelt funds from the House and Senate that “not another dime from labor” until the Governor signs the Worker Privacy Act.

Um… that’s it?  Angry constituents talking amongst themselves about withholding future contributions? That’s cause for a police investigation? Our state’s three top Dems douched the Washington State Labor Council for this? Are they out of their fucking minds?

You wanna prosecute a supporter for an idle threat, how about me:  not another dime from Goldy until Gov. Gregoire signs an income tax. In fact, I’ll take it one step further:  if the governor does sign an income tax, I promise to donate five dollars to every legislator who votes yes on the bill. There… now that’s crossing a line.  I await my visit from the state patrol.

Sure, it may have been imprudent to use such blunt language in writing, and it was certainly stupid to have included a handful of legislators on the email list, but there is nothing unethical or illegal about threatening to withhold future contributions from a Democratic leadership that seems intent on screwing its most loyal supporters. Money follows votes—that’s how our system works—and if legislators don’t like it they could give up the inherent advantage of incumbency and move to a system of publicly financed elections.

Indeed, it’s only when votes follow money that we’ve really crossed a legal and ethical line, and as this incident once again proves, our Democratic leadership has absolutely no problem kicking their gift horse in the mouth… you know… at least when the horse belongs to labor or environmentalists or any other non-business constituency group.

No doubt the business lobby’s fake think tanks and talk radio hosts and other surrogates in our media establishment will get all high and mighty about the corrupt culture of Olympia and all that, and yet it is business that has honed extortion into their most potent and familiar political tool:  “Cut these unemployment benefits, or we’ll leave town!”  “Kill this bill, or we’ll leave town!”  “Cut our taxes, or we’ll leave town!”

But a handful of unions threaten to turn off the tap if the Dems keep treating them like shit, and that’s unethical? That warrants calling the cops? It beggars the imagination.

No, we all know what happened here:  the Democratic leadership hated this bill and were just itching for an excuse to kill it. The only question remaining is why they had to do it in such an outrageously ham-fisted manner?

Frank could have just refused to let the bill come to the floor for a vote; he’s good at that.  Or the bill could have been allowed to die in one committee or another.  Or the governor could have vetoed the bill, had it somehow managed to pass both houses. If they didn’t like the spaghetti, they could’ve just said so.

And if they really were concerned about the language or intent of the email, they could have expressed their displeasure privately, then killed the bill all the same, just as they had always intended to do.  It was a stupid thing to put in writing, and the WSLC arguably deserved a tongue lashing in response.

But instead, they took this relatively innocuous line in an email that wasn’t even directed to legislators, and used that as grounds for publicly attacking unions, and instigating a police investigation?  Why?

Are they that fearful of even the remotest appearance of impropriety that they’re willing to throw their most loyal supporters under the bus at the slightest provocation?  Is this whole incident a calculated effort to prove to the media and business establishment that the party really is independent of labor?  Or, have the state Dems really come to take labor money so for granted, that they’ve forgotten it isn’t their own, thus, in their own minds, making any suggestion of withholding future contributions the ethical equivalent of a reverse bribe… essentially a threat to steal money from Democratic coffers unless the bill is signed?

I dunno.  But what I do know is that unless an apology for this bizarre overreaction is forthcoming, the unions in question might be better served by holding true to their threat.  Not a dime for the house and senate Democratic committees… at least not while they remain under control of leaders who clearly don’t value labor’s support.

Maybe what people should do is email their Legislators and demand that they immediately pass a budget that guts K-12 and higher education and contains no new taxes, or they will never get one more dime from us.

Then they “ethically” can’t do it! (Insert Nelson Muntz “ha ha” here.)

But watch out, you might find a state trooper knocking on your door!