Goldy

The Seattle Times editorial board has published a correction today regarding a school scheduled for closure:  “It is the Old Hay building, not John Hay Elementary.”

That’s okay.  Mistakes happen, and it’s always good form to correct them. No biggie.

But as long as the Times’ editorialists are admitting their factual errors, it sure would be refreshing to see them admit their editorial errors as well.  You know… those times when their opinions were just plain wrong.

For example, take this bit of oh-so-conventional wisdom from a February 13, 2008 editorial:

The transit-only folks delude themselves if they believe voters killed last fall’s “Roads and Transit” ballot measure because they didn’t want the roads. They do want the roads. And the idea of combining transit and roads was right. Both are needed. The ballot measure failed because the light-rail part was too expensive and created a tax that was too high.

Uh-huh.

In hindsight, with the subsequent passage of the transit portion of the measure, and by a comfortable margin, the opinion leaders at the Times look pretty damn out of touch.  But it didn’t take much hindsight to pick apart the Times’ analysis, for as I wrote at the time:

Um… when the Times says voters “do want roads,” and the “measure failed because the light-rail part was too expensive and created a tax that was too high,” they’re basing those assertions on what? Polls? Intuition? Gentle assurances from John Stanton over foie gras and Chateau Lynch-Bages at the Rainier Club? A public opinion fairy they plucked out of their ass?

Yeah, that’s right, Prop 1 failed solely because of the rail portion of the package. All those polls that showed RTID dragging the measure down, and all that opposition from anti-roads advocates like the Sierra Club — that had absolutely nothing to do with Prop 1’s failure. Jesus… talk about deluded.

Of course, nobody’s perfect, and even I got it wrong on this issue, insisting during the months leading up to the 2007 measure that the powers that be would never allow a transit only measure on the ballot in 2008.  My bad.  But at least I admitted it.

The King County Democrats had a great turnout for their Elections Director Candidate Forum last night, at least amongst the members of the King County Democrats.  But the candidates however, well, not so much.

Of the six official candidates only Sherril Huff, Bill Anderson and Chris Clifford bothered to show up, and Clifford only stayed for the first fifteen minutes or so.  Pam Roach, David Irons and Julie Kempf were all no-shows, which if you ask me, was a mistake.  Five of the six candidates showed up for a Rotary Club forum earlier in the day, and apparently nearly outnumbered the audience, and yet Roach, Irons and Kempf chose to dis a packed room of some of the most engaged voters in the county.  Huh.

Ah well, the result was probably a better format, with Huff and Anderson having plenty of time to trade answers to the many thoughtful questions the audience had prepared.  And while Anderson and Clifford can be commended for their passion, I think those in attendance came away pretty damn clear that Huff was the only candidate at the table with the expertise to run elections in one of the largest jurisdictions in the nation.

As I’ve often said, I think the idea of electing an elections director is pretty damn stupid (Huff agrees, Anderson does not), as I’d rather have an elections director who knows how to run elections, than one who knows how to run for them.  And from what I saw of Anderson and Clifford last night, I’m not confident that they can do either.

Huff, on the other hand, while far from a polished politician, has done an admirable job running King County Elections over the past couple years; if you consider her the incumbent, I don’t see anybody making a cogent argument to kick the bum out.  On the contrary, Anderson seemed to trip over himself throughout the forum, commending Huff on her job performance.  I appreciate his honesty, but its an odd way to run a campaign.

I’ve refrained from writing about this race up until now, out of deference to my role as moderator, for which I wanted to maintain a degree of impartiality and civility, but apparently my restraint was wasted.  Obviously, this low-turnout/low-information race will come down to a battle between Huff, Irons and Roach—Huff on her qualifications, Irons and Roach on their name ID.  And now that I’m freed of my self-imposed shackles, I’m guessing I’ll have little bit of fun at Irons’ and Roach’s expense.

The King County Democrats hold their Elections Director Candidate Forum tonight at Renton Carpenter’s Hall, moderated by… me.  Social hour starts at 6PM, and the forum starts promptly at 7PM.  Questions will be taken from the audience.

The on-again/off-again rumors of massive layoffs at Microsoft appear to be off again.  Well… sorta.

CNBC, citing Microsoft sources, said that cuts will be made through attrition and within the ranks of contract employees and not from full-time staff.

I’ve known a lot of folks who’ve worked at Microsoft over the years, and a helluva lot of them have worked as contract employees.  So while Microsoft may not be planning to “lay off” 17-percent of its workforce, as had been recently speculated, a large cut in contract employees could still have a significant impact on our regional economy.

The TNT’s Joe Turner reports that Gregoire Communications Director Pearse Edwards kinda-sorta lied to AP reporter Rachel La Corte about the governor’s whereabouts.  Edwards admitted to Turner:

“I did tell Rachel that the Governor was not in Iraq yesterday when we spoke. The security on this was critical and I was under strict instructions not to release that information by Dept. of Defense.”

Yeah, well, technically, the governor wasn’t in Iraq, she was en route, but considering the security concerns, wouldn’t La Corte have honored an embargo if Edwards had forthrightly answered her question on that condition?  I know I would’ve, for in the same way that Edwards might have damaged his credibility by deliberately misleading a reporter, I would have damaged my credibility by not honoring an embargo.  It’s a two-way street you know.

Or maybe I just don’t get something about this journalism thing?

Well, the big news apparently is that Gov. Gregoire will be making a “surprise” visit to WA national guard units in Iraq.  Which I suppose would have been big news if her staff had not allowed speculation of something bigger to get out of hand yesterday evening.

Big sigh of relief from local Dems fearing the turmoil of a Gregoire appointment.

The blogs are all a twitter with speculation that Gov. Chris Gregoire has flown to the other Washington, where she will be named tomorrow as President-Elect Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce, replacing his previous choice, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Well, what we do know is that she is indeed in D.C., that she’s booked satellite time at 6 7 AM tomorrow morning for a big announcement… but folks who seem to know these kinda things seem pretty sure that she is not being appointed to Commerce, and that tomorrow’s announcement may be big, but not that big.

Of course, if the announcement is that big, it certainly throws a wrench into our state government, and at a particularly bad time.  Lt. Gov. Brad Owen—nominally a Democrat—would take over until a special election is held in November of this year… an election that could be an absolute free for all on the Democratic side.  As for the Republicans, Dino Rossi would have to be the favorite out of the gate, but I wouldn’t put it beyond Rob McKenna to throw his hat into the ring.

As for me, I’m still exhausted from the previous gubernatorial election, which essentially lasted for the past four years, so I’m crossing my fingers that the folks who seem to know these kinda things know what they’re talking about, and Gregoire remains governor at least for the time being.

The Newport Hills chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight, 7-10PM, at the Mustard Seed Grill and Pub, 5608 119th Ave SE, in Bellevue, and I’m told that Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz will be stopping by.

Of course, the Seattle chapter will be meeting tomorrow night as usual, at the Montlake Ale House, although I’ll be arriving late after moderating the King County Democrats’ elections director candidate forum, 7PM at the Renton Carpenters Hall, 231 Burnett Ave. N.

Okay, so you’ve impressed your date with that fancy dinner for two you’ve won from the Seattle Times web site.  Um… now what?

I mean, if you tell your date that you got the dinner for free, it’s not all that impressive, is it?  But if you lie, and pretend you’re shelling out bucks on a fancy meal, than she might reasonably assume that you can afford to spend money like that, thus setting up the expectation of future pricy meals.  Or, she might guess that you can’t afford to spend money like that, and thus assume you’re pretty damn irresponsible.

Or let’s say it works, and a fancy dinner really does impress your date, and maybe you get lucky later.  If that’s the sort of shallow relationship you’re looking for, wouldn’t it be cheaper and more honest in the long run just to frequent hookers?

Personally, I’d rather impress my date with who I am, rather than what kind of restaurant I appear to be able to afford… though perhaps that explains why I’m divorced and single.

With the Minnesota Supreme Court rejecting a last minute appeal by Republican Norm Coleman, Al Franken is expected to be certified the winner in the North Star State’s US Senate race… great news for foul-mouthed satirists everywhere.

I mean, if Franken could pursue a political career after the things he’s said, I suppose that doesn’t entirely rule out a political career for somebody like me.  I’m just sayin’….

Seattle Department of Transportation officials spread salt on roads last night as snow started to accumulate throughout the city, even as meteorologists forecast warmer temperatures and rain overnight.  This morning, salted or not, Seattle roads are mostly clear, and slushy at worst.

Road salt in this kind of weather is a waste of money and salt; there’s not much chance of anything icing up when the temperature is above freezing.  But you know, this is what the Times and many other media outlets demanded, and this is what we got.

State Rep. Bill Grant (D-Walla Walla) died Sunday morning at the age of 71.  He was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer just last month.  My condolences to his friends and family.

Awoke this morning to the sound of the power going out (my carbon monoxide dectector gives out a death shriek at the moment of disconnect), and the chilly thought of the five-day outage two years ago.  About 45 minutes later, the power came back on.

It’s amazing how powerless we modern humans feel in the absence of the power.