Gov. Chris Gregoire released a statement late this afternoon, clarifying her position on former Gov. Booth Gardner’s assisted suicide initiative:
“The initiative filed today by Governor Gardner offers a very personal, individual decision for Washington voters to consider should it qualify for the November ballot. I want to clarify that I will not actively oppose this initiative. It is not my place to impose my morality on others.”
So I guess in the battle between me and Lee in parsing the governor’s words, I win. So there.
UPDATE [Lee]: Goldy, you win this round. But everyone here’s a winner when Crackpiper says things this dumb:
By stepping aside, she is imposing her ammorality.
We could probably train a monkey to keep us this entertained, but we’d still have to feed it. Thank you so much, Crackpiper. Everyone else, keep an eye on EffU this weekend.
goldy……right…..
“It is not my place to impose my morality on others.”
oh, since when? she has changed her position YET AGAIN? cigarette taxes ring any bells for anyone?
and come on…she really thinks that anyone will buy that she doesn’t like to impose herself on people? the very fact that she exists is an imposition……..
Cool…it looks like the Governor was directly responding to the debate offered on this blog.
darryl….oh, brother. so you *think* you got her attention on this blog? wow…now that’s a real accomplishment. almost as good as really accomplishing things, right? admit it…you and goldy were the kids in school that would do ANYTHING for attention……….
Christmasghost @ 3,
Well…I’m damn sure it wasn’t an illiterate fuck like YOU who got her attention!
CG hypocrite or poodle dog?
Same old same old!
Goody
How come a rotted tomato for Dino is ketchup for Chrissy ?
How about balancing the Democratic ticket with a highly successful western governor?
oooooooooh, darryl…hit a sore spot did i?
gee, sorry. i didn’t realize that you were still so traumatized for having your hand smacked over and over and over again in school.
sweetie, if you really think that anything anyone says ON THIS BLOG would get anyone’s attention, much less the governor’s, you are in need of help.
and GOOD GOD! if she actually did listen to anything any of you said and THEN changed her position…now, how scary is that thought? WOW…..
rossi’s campaign will love that.
man goldy…you really are the kiss of death for politicians and their campaigns. and i thought it was just somebody bitching…but they weren’t kidding.
god roger…you could at least wait a decent period of time before stealing my ideas….couldn’t you?
i think the clinton/gregoire ticket would be the cure for all america’s ills.
don’t you usually make someone vomit when they have swallowed something poisonous?
By stepping aside, she is imposing her ammorality.
The Piper
darryl…..i wonder why it took you so long to get your Ph.D?
“Well…I’m damn sure it wasn’t an illiterate fuck like YOU who got her attention!”
could it have possibly been your amazingly short temper, short attention span, and lack of adult vocabulary?
and what is it about the profs at the udub? who on earth would waste good tuition money there?
or grant money for that matter…..
how is the trough these days anyway?
you do realize that it is “illiterate #%&*@” like me that pay for all those grants, right? you aren’t a producer, are you?
Christmasghost @ 10,
“you do realize that it is “illiterate #%&*@” like me that pay for all those grants, right?”
What the hell???? You mean all those grant $$$ I pull in come from the crack whore industry??????
“you aren’t a producer, are you?”
So…you haven’t been watching the movie credits rolling by? Or is it that you just can’t read that fast?
ChristmasGhoul:
Intelligent conversation and dialog is not your forte.
Using symbols as a way to show your moral superiority is nonsensical at best. (As in illiterate %$#^#) Childish and immature too.
Fuck you!
Yes, you hit a nerve. My LAST.
Piper at 9:
So you don’t like her statement and that makes her amoral?
My God (or your God if you prefer) what is wrong with you besides the over sized ego?
Never mind. I answered my own question.
@8 Since I don’t even read your spew, there’s damned little chance of me stealing your ideas.
However, it would be just like a Republican to claim something obvious as her idea, and try to patent it.
Fortunately, the Patent Office figured that one out 200 years ago, and rejects applications for patents on ideas that are “obvious.”
So I guess in the battle between me and Lee in parsing the governor’s words, I win. So there.
In your FACE, Lee! :-)
That’ll learn ya’.
@9 By not stepping aside, you are imposing your officious meddling.
@10 Contrary to wingnut myth, virtually all new drugs, materials, consumer products, and industries are born in universities and government research labs.
That’s because basic research is speculative, therefore highly risky, and private capital only bets on sure things.
For example, many wingnuts believe drug companies gouge consumers to pay for expensive research. The truth is drug companies typically spend only 5% to 8% of their gross revenues on research, and over 50% on advertising and marketing. Likewise, manufacturing corporations generally do not invent anything; they make what university and government researchers invent.
@16…RR…
Oh, I’ll NEVER step aside. I’ll step all over you, but never aside.
The Piper
@13…Carl…
She parses like a pro on the issue. She decries assisted suicide, weeps for Booth Gardner, then says, “Ole!” showing her cape work as she finesses out of the issue.
Take a stand, Gov, that’s what you were elected to do! Provide leadership one way or the other so that the voters can judge you accordingly. On issues like this, senior elected officials cannot take a pass.
The Piper
19:
Oh yes they can. And you are free to judge her ability to to govern based on that decision if you wish.
Last time I looked, this was still The United States of America (well mostly, Bush has pillaged the constitution for now. We are taking our damn country back soon).
I choose to commend her for not imposing her personal belief on the rest of us. Leaving the decision to the people. The way it should be.
Last week she wanted to prevent suicide by building anti
jumper fences on the Aurora bridge, probably THE single
most retarded idea ever spewed forth by a politician.
How about assisted suicide for democrats before they get sick?
Now there is an idea whose time has come. This blog
is pure entertainment.
@18 I’m sorry to be the rabbit to tell you this, but you have an inflated notion of your significance.
@19 Gee, piper … that’s what professional politicians do. (yawn)
@21 There’s no contradiction between her positions on the two issues, and there’s a big difference between discouraging impulsive jumpers and allowing someone with a terminal medical condition and in great pain to make a carefully considered decision to end their suffering.
But I wouldn’t expect a mind as small as yours to discern the distinction.
For starters, one reason for fencing the bridge is because the jumper might land on someone below.
But that’s not the main reason, which is, jumpers usually are suffering from depression, and depressed people can be cured (or, at least, the depression can be controlled), such that an impulsive jumper who is prevented from committing the act may yet have a long (and happy) life ahead of him/her; whereas, assisted suicide is designed to provide dying people a humane escape from unbearable pain.
Opposition to assisted suicide laws is brought to you by the same meddling jerks who would throw suffering cancer patients in jail for seeking pain relief from marijuana.
(Does marijuana work for that purpose? Is it the only recourse? I don’t know. That’s a medical question that I leave to people with the medical training and experience to qualify them to answer.)
It’s brutal, but tempting, to hope these people someday will suffer the pain they insist on inflicting upon others in the name of “morality,” as a sort of poetic justice.
But, once again I ask, why is an assisted suicide law necessary? If someone wants to check out of the bed-and-breakfast, what’s stopping him/her? All you need is a .357 and the guts to pull the trigger. If that doesn’t work, there’s always the fallback of kissing a train.
@7 “oooooooooh, darryl…hit a sore spot did i?”
I doubt it. You’re too insignificant to push Darryl’s buttons. I know Darryl (a little, anyway), and I don’t think he gives a hoot what you think.
This is such a silly issue. It’s been decided by both parties (but especially the Republicans) that the government owns your body. Assuming NO harm to others in your actions, you still aren’t the ‘owner’ of your body, the government is…and you wonder why Ron Paul is getting more support than Fred Thompson.
Here’s a few good “Freedom”(tm) positions supported by the Republicans:
1. You don’t have the right to kill yourself. It’s technically llegal. And a doctor can’t “assist” you in this. Because we love life no MATTER what, no matter the pain or horror right? Well, read on…
2. Under the death penalty (embraced by the right to life crowd) the government on the other hand CAN decide to terminate your life if you’ve been convicted of killing someone, selling enough drugs, treason and anything else they choose to add in the future. Once the government asserts it’s RIGHT to legally kill it’s citizens, the list of reasons can (and will) increase. Hey, HE looks like a terrorist!
3. You can’t choose to ingest ‘certain’ foods/drinks/smoke that the government doesn’t like. Regardless of whether it harms your productivity, is involved in a crime or not. Regardless, for your “own good” we won’t allow you to smoke pot. Now shut up and have another Vodka martini.
4. At the request of the Republican party, the government (of Texas, supported in brief by the Bush Admin) will come up with a list of government certified sexual positions which consenting adults are allowed to engage in. The government will decide what is “allowable” sex between adults, even in your own home, in the middle of the night, with your curtains drawn. If any consenting legal age adults have sex in a non-government approved position, they can be jailed. Bush supported this idea. (Lawrence v Texas)
Lets build fences on every bridge in case someone jumps and
lands on a boat and kills the captain. Its fucking stupid.
Rabbit, do you jerk off to pictures of your furry self?
Why don’t you put that in a letter to the editor, with your real name and address, and see if the public supports your view or thinks you’re a fucking moron?
Me, I think you’re a fucking moron, mark.
By stepping aside, she is imposing her ammorality.
That has to be the all time classic of wankitude!
@9 Piper
Ammorality? When did the subject get changed to guns n ammo?
I think you mean amorality.
Dumbasses don’t know WHAT they mean.
Roger Rabbit,
@17 Roger Rabbit says:
@10 Contrary to wingnut myth, virtually all new drugs, materials, consumer products, and industries are born in universities and government research labs.
Not quite. The basic science leading to drugs almost always emerges from research labs but drug companies have much better resources in finding the drugs.
Here area few examples:
AIDS: Protease Inhibitors: The virus and the protease were disc. by academics in American and French government labs, the inhibs came from drug industry. Work at Merck and NJovarts was esp. importnat.
ATHEROSCLEROSIS: The target , choleste4rol synthesis, was Worked out in academe, the critical efforts actually at the UW, the orignal compounds were developed in Japan. American pharma, Lilly, designed the “statins”.
ANTIDEPRESSANTS: Basic scientists worked out brain
chemistry, industry has developed the drugs.
ANTIANGIOGENESIS DRUGS (Cancer): The role of blood vessels in cancer was academic. Many potential molecules were defined, from industry and from academe. The final target VEGF, was purified and cloned by Monsanto and by Genentech.
There are a few exceptions to this pattern but academic research is really not well adapted to the costly processes of screening compound libraries. Also, the costs of clinical trials are far beyond anything the NIH can spend.
Actually, the story is even more capitalist then the wing nutters know. MOST drug discovery .. even when the basic research starts outside of the uS, is done by American pharma labs BECAUSE our system rewards these investments better than the systems in socialist countries. Most major drug companies based in Europe’s socialist sphere, have moved all or large parts of their discovery research to the US.
That’s because basic research is speculative, therefore highly risky, and private capital only bets on sure things.
I think we need a new word. Not liberal, not conservative, hut loyalists.
It seems to em that Goldy and others who supprt CG are party loyalists. If she were a Reprican her behavior would be considered terribke and the loyalists would be trying to get Ron Sims elected.
Persanlly, I see some vlau7e in loyalism, we ain’t agoona get rid of the two party system soon. BUT, I hope that the web will lead to support of folks who are not loyalist. How else do you change the party!
On suicide
I just listened to the memorial service for Alan Ginsberg. Alan did not suicide, but he went to death willingly. Wasn’t that his privilege?
On Loyalism
Obviously we all will support dems by default as long as the alternative is the rabid repricans. BUT what happens if and when this era passes? What happens iff the Reprican party oi taken over by Rationalists?
There is more than just a glimmer here. The OK meeting .. nominally bipartisan, was largely rational republican. McCain or Romney PLUS Whitman might be a real threat to Hillary if she is the dem.
Back here, I value the DL crowd immensely, but I think it is foolhardy to just back the default demo candidates and positions. That leads to a demo party as badly off as the repricans.
Objectively, what I see in CG is a talented administrator who is weak on ideas. Coming to this job at a really great time, she has applied band aids to education and let transportation sink into a mire. The problme is NOT just the realpolitic limitations of WA state, it his her failure to use her job to promote policies that have a long term effect.
Transportation: Does anyone know where she stands on the larger, state wide issues?? Should we have toll roads? What should we do about airports? How does transportation make us more competitive for Boeing and MS future?
Education: We have NO real plans. The Constitution is clear and we are in violation across the board. So waht dow e do .. we have last minute fixes to $$ for salaries, we are building Pork U branches of the UW all over the place w/o adequate funding, etc.
Where does CG stand on any of this??? Does she have any stands?
Somewhere in the world today Piper someone is being tortured under the orders of your brave President. This person is a terrorist according to your government. The same government you think can do nothing right Piper.Yet you Piper will not denounce the use of torture or even consider the suggestion that the person being tortured without access to habeas corpus may be innocent. Somewhere in the world Piper a person is being subjected to waterboarding, extreme temperatures, bright lighting and loud music, hung from the wall by their limbs and who knows what other evil is being done to them. This is happening 24/7! Torture is not something people can respectfully disagree about Piper. Torture is evil Piper. Profoundly and inexcusably evil! Piper. And so when I happen upon a person who enables and supports torture, like you Piper, I feel profound contempt and disgust for that person. Your President has done great harm to the very essence of this country Piper. And he has done it with the support of people like you PIPER. You support evil Piper. And you can go on and on and on with your rhetoric and straw men and quotes from Shakespeare Piper as much as you want . But somewhere Piper is a poor son of a bitch suspended from wall shackles being tortured in your name Piper, and you are as guilty of that act of torture as the torturer and the man who ordered it: Your President Piper George W. Bush.
Somewhere in the world today Piper someone is being tortured under the orders of your brave President. This person is a terrorist according to your government. The same government you think can do nothing right Piper.Yet you Piper will not denounce the use of torture or even consider the suggestion that the person being tortured without access to habeas corpus may be innocent. Somewhere in the world Piper a person is being subjected to waterboarding, extreme temperatures, bright lighting and loud music, hung from the wall by their limbs and who knows what other evil is being done to them. This is happening 24/7! Torture is not something people can respectfully disagree about Piper. Torture is evil Piper. Profoundly and inexcusably evil! Piper. And so when I happen upon a person who enables and supports torture, like you Piper, I feel profound contempt and disgust for that person. Your President has done great harm to the very essence of this country Piper. And he has done it with the support of people like you PIPER. You support evil Piper. And you can go on and on and on with your rhetoric and straw men and quotes from Shakespeare Piper as much as you want . But somewhere Piper is a poor son of a bitch suspended from wall shackles being tortured in your name Piper, and you are as guilty of that act of torture as the torturer and the man who ordered it: Your President Piper George Bush.