Goldy

I had no idea what I was getting into when I first started blogging four years ago next month. What started as an exercise in forcing myself to write every day, has morphed into an obsession that can produce a half-dozen posts every 24 hours. And while I allowed myself to dream that I might someday earn an audience of a few hundred, I never imagined that thousands of readers would eventually make HA a part of their daily routines.

There is a ton of work and several tons more of pressure in keeping HA relevant, informative and entertaining, and there is absolutely no way I could have continued at this pace without the generous and talented help of my co-bloggers. And over the past year I have particularly come to rely on the increasingly prolific contributions of Will Kelley-Kamp both in keeping HA fresh, and in giving me the occasional breather that I so desperately need.

That is why I am both saddened and proud to announce that Will will be stepping back from HA, at least through November, to take a position as campaign manager for state Rep. Geoff Simpson. Will has more than earned this opportunity, and I have no doubt that he will perform his duties with flying colors. He will retain his blogging privileges here at HA, but neither the time nor the political constraints of a full-time political campaign will permit him to post with much if any frequency.

But as long as we’re saying goodbye to an HA regular, if only temporarily, I’d like to take this opportunity to welcome a new co-blogger to the HA stables, Jon DeVore. Jon’s original blog, Columbian Watch, was one of the first political blogs I read on a regular basis (along with Carl’s famously concise Washington State Political Report), and I have long been a fan of his writing. Some of you may remember him as Stilwell, under which name he wrote for a while at NW Progressive Institute. I look forward to his contributions.

Will is incredibly enthusiastic about his new job, not the least which because, unlike blogging, it actually pays. Likewise, I know that there have been some of you in the comment threads who have suggested that I should do the responsible thing and get a real job myself, rather than asking my readers for support. Of course I could, and I’d probably make a pretty penny in the process, but my job here is not done. This is perhaps the most important election year in my lifetime since 1968, and we all know how well that one turned out for the nation. So I have chosen to take what little opportunity I have to make difference, and continue to attempt to do exactly that.

Of course, on this, the final day of my annual Pledge Week, please remember that I can’t keep this up forever. My ability to grow and expand HA to the point where it can eventually earn enough money to support me, relies for the moment on your continued support. Help support local progressive media. Please give today.

So how is founder Denis Hayes choosing to celebrate this 38th Earth Day? By endorsing Darcy Burner:

When it comes to the environment, Darcy gets it! But more than that, she gets what needs to be done, and knows how to get there. She will represent more than merely a vote we can count on and a voice on these issues that are important to each of us – she will take on the tough political battles we need to fight if we are to bring our planet back into balance. She is a true environmentalist.

Read the whole thing…

Speaking before a crowd of about a hundred Democrats at a fundraiser yesterday, U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks (WA-06) reportedly said that if Hillary Clinton wins “big” in today’s Pennsylvania primary, he believes the nominating contest will go all the way to the convention, but… if she does not win big — and given the current polling he has no expectation that she will — there would be no way the math could work for her, and he’d flip his endorsement to Barack Obama in order to help end the contest sooner rather than later.

Dicks did not provide details, but he left the impression with attendees that he has discussed this scenario with several of his fellow Congressional superdelegates, and that he is alone in neither his analysis nor his intentions.

So think of Dicks as the canary in the coal mine of the Clinton campaign; if he flips, other superdelegates will likely flip with him. And that would signal the end of Clinton’s presidential ambitions.

I refuse to take sides in the Senate primary in Oregon, but I just love Steve Novick’s ads. Especially this, and this. (I don’t know if they work, but they sure work for me.)

The most striking aspect of Dino Rossi’s transportation “plan” (you know, other than its complete and utter bullshittiness), is its almost total focus on road-building at the expense of expanded transit options. In fact the only nod toward transit in the entire plan is Rossi’s proposal to divert Sound Transit money toward building additional miles of HOV lanes on 405 and elsewhere on the Eastside.

But even that’s a total crock of shit, for even if Rossi could get around the thorny constitutional constraints that gives a governor zero control over local tax dollars (and he can’t), at the same time he’s proposing building more HOV lanes, he’s also proposing opening these lanes up to single occupancy traffic throughout most of day, which in a region fast approaching 24-hour rush hour makes the HOV designation virtually meaningless.

So in essence, Rossi proposes taking money Sound Transit has socked away for building light rail to Bellevue, and spending it instead on building more general purpose freeway lanes — he just calls them “HOV” lanes and hopes voters and reporters won’t notice. Well, we did.

A heartfelt thanks to the 74 readers who have donated $4,335 to our second annual HA Pledge Week. But while that already surpasses last year’s $4,044 total we’re still far short of our 150 donor/$6,000 goal, six days into the drive.

If I’m at all disappointed it is with the total number of donations, still less than half this year’s target and 32 shy of last year’s total of 106 contributions. It is only through the extraordinary generosity of the donors thus far — averaging almost $59 per contribution — that Pledge Week hasn’t proven to be a bust. I suppose I shouldn’t be picky, but I had hoped for a broader base of readers to show their support.

But there’s still time. Last year a flood of $5, $10 and $20 donations helped put us over the top, and I’m hoping you ride to the rescue this year as well. Please show your support for local progressive media and help me take HA to the next level. Please give today.

From the TNT’s Political Buzz:

It seems Sheriff Dave has changed his Web site, which for months touted a rating showing him being the second most effective House member from Washington state during his first term. But according to the Democrats, sometime earlier this month that reference was dropped from his Web site. Reichert is now listed by congress.org as the least effective Washington state member and 401st out of the 439 House members.

No doubt House Republican leaders had high hopes for the silver haired Sheriff when he first came into Congress, gifting him plum committee assignments that bumped up his rookie year ratings. But in the three years hence he’s proven the biggest local bust since Brian Bosworth, trailing fellow WA Republican Rep. Cathy McMorris-Rodgers by a wide margin, along with 32 (out of 40) other members of his class.

The TNT points out that “the party in control sets the agenda, which affects the ratings,” and that’s good perspective, but so is the fact that when you compare apples to apples, Reichert now ranks only 171st out of 200 fellow House Republicans. Of course, that’s still better than 29 other GOP House members, some of whom aren’t even retired, indicted, behind bars or dead.

Why Reichert would choose to highlight his downward spiral, I don’t know. I suppose that explains the sudden web site edit.

Talk about domestic terrorism, People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals want to develop test tube meat:

[PETA] said it would announce plans Monday for a $1 million prize to the “first person to come up with a method to produce commercially viable quantities of in vitro meat at competitive prices by 2012.”

The idea of getting the next Chicken McNugget out of a test tube is not new. For several years, scientists have worked to develop technologies to grow tissue cultures that could be consumed like meat without the expense of land or feed and the disease potential of real meat. An international symposium on the topic was held this month in Norway. The tissue, once grown, could be shaped and given texture with the kinds of additives and structural agents that are now used to give products such as soy burgers a more meaty texture.

Huh.  I’ve always assumed that’s exactly how they already make Chicken McNuggets.

Less than two days left in our annual pledge week and we’ve raised a respectable amount of money, though we’re still far short of our 150 donor/$6,000 target. A huge thanks to the 67 of you who have donated $3,690 thus far.

The righty trolls in the comment threads like to accuse me of being a deadbeat, derisively pointing to this fund drive as proof positive. But what I really am is an entrepreneur, if with an admittedly shaky business plan: asking you to choose to help pay for a service you obviously find valuable. Prove me right, and them wrong; please give today.

Artist rendering of construction of Rossi’s waterfront tunnel

There has been much debate amongst political insiders this week over whether Dino Rossi’s transportation “plan” was a smart political move. Oh, everybody agrees it is dumb policy — a head-up-its-ass, roads-only acceleration of a WSDOT wish list funded by pixie dust and prevarication — but there are some on both sides of the aisle who argue that local voters are indeed gullible enough to believe that enunciating such a plan somehow reflects on Rossi’s ability to achieve it. Me… I’m not so sure.

See, the problem with transportation planning in the Puget Sound region and Washington state, is that we’re just too goddamn, small “d” democratic to give any public official the moral or legal authority to get things done. Robert Moses himself could descend from Mt. Sinai with a comprehensive transportation plan etched in stone by the hand of God, and it would quickly crumble to dust amidst political squabbling, obstructionist ballot measures, picketing polar bears, and our state taxpayers’ profound unwillingness to actually pay for the infrastructure and services we want. Neither our statutory framework nor our political ethos easily accommodates the kind of forceful leadership required to enact, you know… plans.

Hence, a skeptical response from our state’s opinion makers might have been expected even had Rossi’s numbers actually added up. Which they don’t. Prompting even the Seattle Times to politely trash Rossi’s proposal in a Sunday editorial that bandies about the words “mushy,” “baffling,” “troublesome,” and “misleading,” while charging that the candidate “cha-cha’s around the question of what other things the state would do without.”

It is hard to imagine the political advantage to be gained from a “plan” on which even the rhetorical cosmeticians at the Blethen Family Newsletter can’t manage to slather a little political lipstick. And how could they while describing three of Rossi’s major proposals as a “financial sinkhole,” “a waste of money” and, well… a political fantasy?

He relies on tolls less than Gregoire but only because he reaches into a currently untappable fund, Sound Transit’s pot of gold. For Rossi to accomplish his goals, he would need a Republican Legislature.

Rossi wouldn’t just need a Republican legislature to divert Sound Transit’s Eastside light rail dollars to roads, he’d need the cooperation of the Sound Transit board, plus a vote of the people. And he’s not likely to get any of those of three, anymore than he’ll get Seattle voters to approve a waterfront tunnel or residents of the Montlake neighborhood to acquiesce to bulldozing an eight-lane 520 through the Arboretum.

I suppose, technically, it’s still a “plan” — it’s just a plan for failure. The question editorialists should be asking of Rossi is, does he really not understand how politically unrealistic his proposals are… or does he just not care?

It’s been pointed out to me that I haven’t been writing as much, and of course that’s true, as I’ve kinda been immersed in coding these days. Recently, I’ve been banging my head against the wall trying to implement a basic Rich Text comment editor, but I’ve given up. If you’re a WordPress jockey who can give me Rich Text comments while automatically stripping out all but the most basic HTML and CSS, I could use your help, but in the meanwhile everybody will just have to get by with the formatting buttons I’ve added to the comment form.

Speaking of hitting a wall, that’s exactly what the Pledge Drive has done over the past 24 hours. We had a great first three days, but as expected, donations slowed to a crawl as we headed into the weekend. 55 readers have now contributed $3,110, and I thank you all, but we’re falling far short of the pace we need to meet our $6,000/150 donor targets.

If I were a righty, I’d have some cushy think tank job or bullshit book deal to pay my bills and keep me blogging. But progressives, well… too often, we’re just expected to volunteer. But you know, I can’t eat passion, and for some reason my bank won’t take page views in lieu of dollars when paying my mortgage, so if you want me to be able to continue blogging full time — and continue developing the all new HA — I need your financial support. Maintaining HA is a helluva lot of work, and I do it for next to nothing. But I can’t afford to do it for absolutely nothing.

So please, show your appreciation by giving whatever you can. An average $40 donation from 150 readers will hit our target, but just five or ten bucks is always welcome. Thanks.

During a web chat Friday, Washington Post congressional reporter Jonathan Weisman was asked for his thoughts on the race for WA-08:

Seattle: A Congress question — do you think Washington’s 8th District Rep. Dave Reichert (R) is in a better or worse position to win a rematch against Darcy Burner (D)?

Jonathan Weisman: Worse, way worse. I never count out an incumbent, never. But Darcy Burner is a little more experienced this go-round and a lot lot richer. She’s been raising a ton of money and is getting a lot of help from Democratic Washington.

Darcy’s getting a lot of help from Democrats in both Washingtons… the kinda help Reichert can’t count on getting from Republicans this cycle.