Archives for March 2009

Freedom Bank of Georgia, Commerce, GA.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vbJxMd3Pls8[/youtube]

I can haz financial newz? LOL!

The state legislature may have cut Seattle entirely out of federal transportation stimulus dollars, but at least we’re getting our fair share of the much smaller stimulus program aimed at criminal justice services:  $2.7 million of the $14.3 million being distributed to Washington state municipalities.  Of course, that’s only because the money is being divied up nationally according to a federal formula based on population and crime statistics, rather than the “Fuck Seattle” politics that tends to dominate Olympia these days.

(Hat tip, TNT)

The Seattle Times editorial board’s lack of empathy and curiosity is on display once again, this time in a smirk of an unsigned op-ed that dismissively rolls its eyes at families fighting to save their neighborhood schools from closure.

WASHINGTON law allows those who feel wronged by school boards or school officials to seek legal recourse.

The statute gives legal cover to the four lawsuits filed this week against the Seattle School District over its school-closures plan. But it does not hide their lack of substance.

[…] When it comes to government, the public must have a route to appeal, and in the case of harm, seek remedy. But a foundation held up by taxpayers has a high threshold. Nuisance lawsuits and those that seek not to remedy, but to obstruct, should be swiftly ferreted out and dismissed.

Shorter Seattle Times:  those who feel wronged have the right to seek legal recourse, you know, except when it gets in the way of saving money.

It is particularly irritating to see the Times pontificate on school closures knowing their credulous coverage of the issue over the past three rounds. The Times, which has been quick to criticize the district on other issues, simply accepts the school closure data—enrollment, budget, cost savings and performance numbers—as a matter of fact, while dismissing objections from parents as nothing but a “nuisance” and an effort to “obstruct.” And for a paper that is often so vociferously suspicious of government and government officials when it comes to property rights, public disclosure, transportation planning, the raising and spending of taxpayer dollars and almost every other issue, it is more than a bit ironic to see them urging parents to just shut up and sacrifice their own children’s education for the good of the district.

If the plan results in better-resourced schools, more successful students and district efficiencies that free up the money to pay for it, those children are being singled out for something good.

How very Mr. Spock of them.  If I didn’t know better, I’d say this editorial was written by a goddamn socialist.

While I haven’t educated myself nearly as well on the specifics of this closure plan, I know from past experience how “arbitrary and capricious” the district can be in justifying one proposal over another, and then suddenly changing course.  My own neighborhood school, Graham Hill Elementary, was slandered by the district during the 2006 closure process on nearly every metric evaluated.  Academic performance, neighborhood support, even something supposedly as concrete as our enrollment numbers were intentionally deflated in an effort to justify our school’s closure.  And when we presented our own numbers (including a detailed analysis from a forensic accountant) to the Times, they responded with public silence and private accusations of NIMBYism.

Had we followed the Times’ sage advice, and just shut up and accepted the district’s decision for the good of the many, Graham Hill would be shuttered today instead of over-enrolled and winning awards.  But we didn’t.  As with most aspects of our capitalist-inspired society, this is an adversarial process.  So we fought hard for our school, and we won.  And I applaud those communities who are doing the same for their neighborhood schools, in the face of overwhelming odds and the elitist admonishments of know-it-all editorial boards.

In fact, I’d argue that it is those parents who refuse to fight who deserve to be admonished, for if all parents fought as hard for their children’s education as those who are bringing these lawsuits, the needs of the many would surely be better served.

It’s March, so you know what that means, right?

Right?

No?

It’s time for the Municipal League of King County’s 50th Annual Civic Awards!

Still nothing?

Allow me to explain… The Muni League has been around for a long time. They’re known for their candidate ratings, their independent research, and their quiche. Every year they give out awards to people who have done something useful for the community. They invite everyone in Sen. Fred Jarrett’s rolodex over to a nice venue for finger food and $9.00 Diet Cokes.

WHERE: Seattle Art Museum
WHEN: March 25 from 6 to 8:30 p.m
HOW MUCH: $70 general admission, $60 Municipal League Members

(Admission includes 2009 Membership and a “Jim Vesely column Decoder Ring,” beer, wine, passed hors d’ouevres and a dessert gift bag at the end of the evening.)

Tonya Harding, Clark County’s most beloved celebrity, speaks out about Barack Obama.

Unfortunately.

Maybe she’ll stay up in the hills for another decade.

This is all over the Internet Tubes today, but in case you missed it, check out Jon Stewart completely owning Clown-NBC and Rick Santelli.

[flash]http://media.mtvnservices.com/mgid:cms:item:comedycentral.com:220252[/flash]

Further proof that the best journalists in the country are—comedians, especially Stewart and Colbert, since they seem to be the ones consistently pointing out how utterly and consistently wrong conservatives have been about everything. The Daily Show clip really is an instant classic.

I know Frank Blethen keeps saying that the impending demise of the P-I will be a boon to his rival Times, but apparently not everybody is that optimistic…

The McClatchy Co., which owns 49.5 percent of The Seattle Times Co., has again cut the value of its share of the Seattle newspaper company — this time to nothing.

Because of The Seattle Times Co’s. “comprehensive loss related to its retirement plan liabilities” in 2008, McClatchy’s investment was zero as of Dec. 28, McClatchy said in its most recent filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Huh.  I’m not exactly certain what a 49.5 percent stake in HA would be worth, but I’m pretty sure it’s worth more than nothing.

Our OCD pals over at Seattle Transit Blog are studying the details of our state economic stimulus bill, and they don’t like what they see.

Wait just a minute. What’s that amendment (PDF)? It’s from Representative Judy Clibborn (D-Mercer Island), whose constituents voted for light rail over the I-90 bridge?

Oh, I see, it screws over light rail across I-90. Again.

Apparently, thanks to Rep. Clibborn’s amendment, the one state project the voter-approved East Link light rail depends on actually ends up with $700,000 less than it had before the federal stimulus money. No doubt good news to those Mercer Islanders looking to maintain their SOV lanes as long as possible.

So when the people pass a ballot measure cutting taxes or limiting government, somehow their will is inviolate, and legislators quake in their boots at the very thought of overturning a voter approved initiative.

But when the people pass a ballot measure directing state funds toward reducing class size or increasing teacher pay, or banning certain inhumane hunting techniques, or… say… mandating electric utilities get 15% of their energy from renewable sources by 2020… well, apparently legislators feel free to reinterpret voter intent, or even sacrifice it altogether in the name of political or economic expediency.

Go figure.

I just want to thank everyone who supported the successful passage of the Death with Dignity law this past year. It reminded me why this corner of the country is truly a special place.

UPDATE (Goldy):
Compassion and Choices has a page up explaining Washington’s Death With Dignity Act, and providing many useful links for patients and their families.

Al Franken should debate Rush Limbaugh.

The podcast goes mostly national this week, beginning with a discussion of approval. Specifically…the public’s high opinion of Obama and his programs, and its low opinion of congressional Republicans (and their leader de profundis, Rush). Along the way some potshots are taken at “bipartisanship”. The conversation meanders through several foreign policy issues where we learn that Americans really do like Hillary, too. Returning from overseas, the panel takes a look at our 1997 economy, bank bailouts, stocks buys, taxes on the wealthy, and the future of reporting and the media.

Goldy was joined by Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly, DailyKos uber-blogger mcjoan, co-founder of Headzup.tv John Shay, and Donkeylicious’ Nicholas Beaudrot.

The show is 41:51, and is available here as an MP3:
[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_mar_3_2009.mp3]

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

One of the things that annoyed me about state Representatives Deb Wallace and Glenn Anderson’s interview regarding higher education funding was their instant dismissal of proposals to move to a high tuition/high financial aid model.

At least Anderson was ideologically honest, objecting to wealthy families paying full fare by saying that “we’re not a class society.”  Okay.  Wrong.  But fair enough.

Wallace on the other hand, brushed off the suggestion by saying that the math doesn’t work… implying that the state would have to come up with more financial aid dollars to offset the higher tuition costs, and that ultimately it would make college less affordable for low and middle income families.

First of all, that’s just plain dumb.  Let’s say you’re a low to middle income student currently receiving financial aid in the form of $3,000 in grants, and the UW suddenly jacks up its $6,800/year in tuition and fees to $17,800.  Now let’s say the UW (ie, the state) increases your grant by another $11,000 to offset the hike.  How much extra money did this cost the state?  Zilch.  You were paying $3,800/year and you’re still paying $3,800.  It’s a zero sum game.

But if you’re a student from a wealthy family, who does not need financial aid, and thus does not qualify for it, you’re suddenly paying an extra $11,000 into the system… money that can be spent to increase the quality of education at the UW, or expand the number of seats, or even lower the costs for truly needy students.

That’s how this model works, and at many of our nation’s most prestigious private universities, it generally works damn well.

For example, I just received an email to alumni from University of Pennsylvania President Amy Gutmann, in which she explains how the economic downturn has impacted the university’s finances, and what it is doing to lessen the impact on students.  In fact, despite its endowment suffering a 19-percent loss over the previous six months…

Given the new economic hardships many Americans are facing, I want to focus on the steps we are taking to strengthen Penn’s commitment to access.  We can reassure prospective and current students alike that our financial aid packages will continue to meet the full need of every Penn undergraduate. We are moving forward to substitute grants for loans for all undergraduate financial aid packages beginning in September 2009.  As previously outlined, typical students from families with income less than $40,000 will pay no tuition, fees, room or board.  Students from typical families with incomes less than $90,000 will pay no tuition and fees. All undergraduates eligible for financial aid will receive grants rather than loans in their aid packages.

Tuition and fees at Penn for the 2008-09 academic year come to a stunning $37,526, compared to only $6,800 for in-state students at the UW.  And yet, students from families with incomes less than $90,000 will typically pay no tuition and fees at all.

As you can see, for those who pay full fare, the UW would be an absolute bargain when compared to much pricier private schools, even if tuition were to rise to $17,800.  That’s why the university can still attract so many students paying the $23,000 out-of-state costs.  Yet for those students coming from families on the middle and lower end of the income scale… well… not so much.  The problem is, we’re subsidizing all of our students, instead of just those who need it, while those supposedly elitist Ivy League schools come across as downright socialist.

So don’t tell me the math doesn’t work.  The math works damn well at Penn, and hundreds of other schools.  On this particular issue, it’s our legislature that isn’t working.

SEIU local 925, representing 6,500 University of Washington employees in academic, research and business departments, overwhelmingly voted last night to voluntarily give up scheduled wage increases for 2009-2011.

“Giving up raises won’t stop staff layoffs,” said Anne Lawson, SEIU 925 UW chapter president. “But it will preserve more services for students, faculty and hospital patients, and keep as many experienced staff as possible.”

State employee union leaders aren’t stupid, and everybody I’ve spoken to has seemed more than willing to negotiate concessions to help soften the blow of impending budget cuts.  And that’s the way it should work, rather than the governor or legislature simply imposing wage and benefit cuts, unilaterally abrogating contracts that had been negotiated and signed in good faith.

In response to my post taking legislators to task for the deceptive language in their bill authorizing “carbonless energy parks,”  Rep. Jeff Morris (D-Hole I’m Digging For Myself) tells the Bellingham Herald’s Sam Taylor that I’m just plain wrong:

It currently is a nuclear site, they, Energy Northwest, want to build a thermal solar facility. The bill transfers a water right from the nuclear facility which was never built to the carbonless park….. or maybe they could store black helicopters there?

Well, we all know how much I hate being wrong, which is why, before publishing, I tend to research my posts, even the snarky ones.  So before throwing in that “black helicopter” line, let alone flatly refuting me, Rep. Morris should have done a little more research himself… or at the very least got his story straight with Rep. Brad Klippert (R-Kennewick) whose own press release on the bill actually touts the nuclear option:

Klippert said the bill provides for water usage from the Columbia River for cooling of nuclear reactors.

“We have one nuclear reactor in operation and two others partially constructed. This bill specifically addresses the need for water. With three operating nuclear reactors, we could produce as much electricity at Hanford as all the wind generators in the United States combined,” said Klippert.

Oops.  Is that the whirring of helicopter rotors I hear?

Rep. Morris is right that there is also talk of building a solar-thermal project on the 20-square-mile Hanford site,  but Energy Northwest’s Jack Baker makes clear that for now it’s just talk:   “We want to build solar facilities there in the future when the price is right, and have options there for future nuclear development.”

Again, I’m not opposed to debating nuclear energy; I think there are valid arguments pro and con.  But this adoption of the phrase “carbonless energy parks” on a bill that, amongst other things, specifically secures water rights and tax breaks for the construction and operation of two additional nuclear power plants, is clearly an attempt to deceive, not persuade.

Perhaps, in Rep. Morris’s defense, he too was deceived.  I dunno.  But when it comes to his assertion that this bill is about nothing more than transferring water rights from an unfinished nuclear facility to a solar thermal one, it is he who is wrong, not I.