Goldy

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on Newsradio 710-KIRO:

7PM: The Stranger Hour with Dan Savage
Stranger Editor and nationally syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage joins me for the hour. Rumor has it Dan might be gay, so perhaps we’ll talk about gay issues (you know, antiquing, musical theater, anal sex… stuff like that,) or maybe we’ll do our usual recap of the week’s news and other issues of the day. We’ll see.

8PM: Everything I need to know in life I learned from television
Parents want to give their children every advantage, so no wonder so many put their babies in front of “educational” videos like Baby Einstein and Brainy Baby that promised to give kids a leg up. Now a new study shows that babies who watch these videos actually learn fewer words than their counterparts. Is TV an educational tool, or just an electronic babysitter? Did TV make you and your kids stupid, or better informed. American Academy of Pediatrics spokesperson Dr. Ari Brown joins us to give us her take on the new study, and why the Academy does not recommend television for children under the age of two.

9PM: What’s up South and East of the border?
Julie from Idaho’s Red State Rebels and TJ from Loaded Orygun join me for the hour for a round table round up of regional news and politics.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
My show will be preempted by Seahawks preseason games tomorrow and next Saturday.

Great piece by Don Duncan in today’s Seattle Times. I don’t say it often, but truly great piece in the Seattle Times.

UPDATE:
And while I’m at it, great piece in today’s Washington Post.

Darcy Burner won the sole endorsement of the Pierce County Young Democrats this week in her primary race against Rodney Tom for the Democratic nomination in WA’s 8th Congressional District.

“Darcy [Burner] is the right candidate for the 8th District,” said Sam Ross, PCYD Chair. “She’s right on the constitution, she’s right on healthcare, she’s right on the Iraq occupation, she’s a leader on technology and economic innovation. On all the issues that Young Democrats believe in, Darcy will stand with us always, and on all the issues that truly matter, Darcy will do what she knows to be right.”

This early endorsement in a high profile primary is important for a number of reasons. First, the Young Democrats have strong chapters at University of Puget Sound and Pacific Lutheran University, and have promised aggressive recruitment, doorbelling and phonebanking drives at local colleges and universities. Second, it demonstrates the strong appeal Darcy has amongst one of the fast growing segments of the Democratic Party: younger voters.

In 2002 the electorate was equally divided between Democrats and Democratic-leaners (43%) and Republicans and Republican-leaners (43%). Today only 35% align themselves with Republicans, and 50% with Democrats. The Republicans are doing particularly badly among independents (the fastest-growing group in the electorate) and younger voters. The proportion of 18-25-year-olds who identify with the Republican Party has declined from 55% in 1991 to 35% in 2006, according to Pew. Tony Fabrizio, a Republican pollster, notes that the share of Republican voters aged 55 and over has increased from 28% in 1997 to 41% today, whereas the share aged 18-34 has fallen from 25% to 17%.

The Democratic Party is getting younger, which not only bodes well for the future, it bodes well for candidates like Burner who appeal to their values. It’s kinda cliche to say it, but our young people are our nation’s future… as are future leaders like Darcy Burner.

Yeah sure, I’m no economist, so the other day when I said “fuck inflation” in response to the Federal Reserve’s refusal to cut interest rates in the face of a looming credit crunch that threatened to suck the broader economy down the sub-prime toilet, many readers appeared more offended by my economic heresy than my foul language.

Well… fuck you:

Fed seeks to calm markets with a flood of cash

WASHINGTON — The Federal Reserve, trying to calm turmoil on Wall Street, announced today that it will pump as much money as needed into the U.S. financial system to help overcome the ill effects of a spreading credit crunch.

The Fed, in a short statement, said it will provide “reserves as necessary” to help the markets safely make their way. The central bank did not provide details but said it would do all it can to “facilitate the orderly functioning of financial markets.”

The Fed pushed $35 billion in temporary reserves into the system today morning, on top of a similar move the day before.

Hey… flooding the the financial system with cash… isn’t that supposed to be inflationary? You know, just like cutting interest rates?

I’m not suggesting an interest rate cut necessarily would have preempted or softened the market meltdown we’ve seen over the past couple days, but it certainly does appear that the Fed’s OCD-like focus on inflation blinded it to the severity of what has now become a worldwide credit crunch. And of course, rather than just assuring market liquidity — you know, propping up corporatist interests — cutting interest rates might have helped some threatened homeowners avoid foreclosure by making refinancing more affordable.

I’m just sayin’…

Oh man… I can’t wait to see this ad run all over South Carolina.

The Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee is preparing to launch radio ads in the districts of 12 vulnerable Republican incumbents, and lookie who’s on the list: Rep. Dave Reichert. “This August we’re going district by district to urge Republicans to stop obstructing progress and work with us to end the war in Iraq,” says DCCC chair Chris Van Hollen. TPM Cafe’s Election Central has the details and the audio.

The ad will run locally during drive time on KING, KIRO, KIXI, KMTT, KOMO, KPTK, KTTH and KVI. And considering the coming lane closures on I-5 North, folks will have plenty of time to listen.

There’s a reason why President Bush is coming out here to raise money for Reichert, the first congressman to receive that “honor” this cycle. Reichert is desperate. And you can’t get much more desperate than inviting Bush to come out and campaign for you.

Creating the opportunity for a potentially precedent setting decision, the Washington State Supreme Court has agreed to hear an appeal of a lawsuit challenging the constitutional “scope” of Tim Eyman’s Initiative 960. Oral arguments are scheduled for September 6 at 1:30PM, and a decision would presumably come before ballots go to press for the November election.

Futurewise and SEIU 775 had filed suit in King County Superior Court arguing that I-960 should be blocked from the ballot because it is outside the constitutional scope of the initiative process, and Eyman publicly gloated when the judge refused to act on their request. Hmm. I wonder if Tim’s gloating now?

Courts are reluctant to hear challenges to initiatives prior to the ballot, but the fact that the Supremes have agreed to hear the appeal — and on such an expedited basis — indicates that a number of justices believe the case raises points of law that at least merit consideration. Such scope challenges are not without precedent, the most recent being 2003’s Goldstein v. Gregoire, in which a Thurston County Superior Court judge selectively (and unconstitutionally) barred me from submitting petitions for I-831, my initiative to officially proclaim Tim Eyman a horse’s ass. At the time, my attorney cogently argued:

Many initiatives are presented to the people that are arguably unconstitutional or beyond the scope of the legislative power. For example, Tim Eyman’s Sound Transit Initiative would prevent Sound Transit from spending money on a “Link Light Rail” system. This proposed initiative is clearly beyond the scope of legislative power under Ruano v. Spellman and other cases holding that initiatives cannot seek to prohibit administrative actions. The Attorney General has done nothing to prevent Mr. Eyman from going forward with his initiative. Proposed Initiative 824 is a statement. The Attorney General has taken the position in the present case that statements are not legislative, yet nothing has been done to prevent Initiative 824 from going forward.

Allowing the Attorney General discretion to select initiatives for challenge based on their palatability would violate the First Amendment. If pre-ballot review is to be applied to some initiatives, it should be applied to all initiatives that are arguably unconstitutional or beyond the scope of legislative power.

I still feel that I-831, written in the form of a valid resolution, was barred improperly. But if Goldstein v. Gregoire is ultimately cited in a ruling that blocks I-960 from the ballot, those will have been lumps well worth taking.

Sounds reasonable to me, but then, Kemper Freeman Jr. will run all those ads equating rail with communism, so this can’t possibly pass at the polls, right?

What’s the difference between a true netroots Democrat and an establishment Democrat? The willingness to criticize members of one’s own party when it really counts.

In her latest web ad WA-08 netroots “rock star” Darcy Burner not only sticks it to her Republican opponent Dave Reichert for handing warrantless wiretapping powers to President Bush, Dick Cheney and Alberto Gonzales… she also takes on the 41 Democratic House members who voted with him.

“When Republicans like Dave Reichert give George Bush everything he wants, that’s bad enough. But too many people in my own party aren’t listening either. The warrantless wiretapping bill won’t make us safer, but it will strip us of the rights so many of our families have fought to preserve, including mine.”

This race is about bringing new leadership to the House, not just padding the Democratic majority. No doubt Burner would like DCCC support and the money that comes with it, but anybody who thinks she’s taking her cues from the other Washington, just isn’t listening.

I’ll be filling in for Dave Ross tomorrow morning from 9AM to Noon on News/Talk 710-KIRO. Darcy Burner will be my guest during the 10AM hour.

UPDATE:
Daily Kos founder Markos Moulitsas Zúniga will also be briefly calling in to talk about Yearly Kos, and the importance of supporting netroots candidates (you know… like Darcy.)

In the face of a housing market going down the crapper, and a looming credit crunch threatening to take the markets and the broader economy with it, the Federal Reserve Open Market Committee voted unanimously today to keep interest rates unchanged, and continue to focus on inflation:

“Although the downside risks to growth have increased somewhat, the FOMC’s predominant policy concern remains the risk that inflation will fail to moderate as expected,”

I’m no economist, but really… fuck inflation.

A little inflation can actually be a good thing, especially to people who owe money on things like mortgages, cars, credit cards, school loans, etc… you know, most Americans. And a little inflation would actually be a very good thing for the US Treasury, issuer of nearly $9,000,000,000,000 in public debt (almost $30,000 of debt for every man, woman and child in the U.S.)

In fact, the people who benefit most from the Fed’s decades long focus on maintaining record low inflation are the people who hold most of the debt. Wealthy and older Americans. (And I suppose, the Chinese government.) The Fed’s inflation policy is obsessively narrow at best, and intergenerational warfare at the worst.

So fuck inflation. A few quarters of 4% to 6% inflation isn’t going to kill anybody. And if a temporary cut in interest rates revives the housing market a bit and keeps a few hundred thousand families out of foreclosure, it would be well worth it.

Apparently, anything made by McDonald’s tastes better:

Even carrots, milk and apple juice tasted better to the kids when they were wrapped in the familiar packaging of the Golden Arches.

The study had youngsters sample identical McDonald’s foods in name-brand and unmarked wrappers. The unmarked foods always lost the taste test. […] Study author Dr. Tom Robinson said the kids’ perception of taste was “physically altered by the branding.”

Hmm. I guess that must explain this…

Would you like fries with that? (from CollegeHumor)

We’ve been anticipating major programming changes any day, so when 710-KIRO management called an all-staff meeting for today at noon, everybody pretty much expected the other shoe to drop. Starting tomorrow the Dori and Ron & Don shows each slide an hour earlier, with a new long format news show hosted by Tony Miner moving into the 6-7PM slot. Ron Reagan and New York Vinnie are gone, with a yet to be announced new show coming soon in the 7-10PM slot. Frank Shiers will host from 10PM to 1AM, and while I’m sure he doesn’t mind losing that dreaded fourth hour, I’m pretty damn sure he would have preferred trimming the last hour rather than the first.

I can’t comment on the changes from a programming perspective (the general reaction seemed to be favorable,) but I can tell you that Ron Reagan will be missed around the office. I’ve only had the opportunity to chat with him a couple of times, but Ron is uniformly thought of as a “really nice guy” in an industry where niceness is nowhere near a prerequisite for success. Likewise, I will personally miss Vinnie, who I’ve gotten to know a bit from my occasional fill-ins on weeknights. I wish both Ron and Vinnie the very best.

As for me, I’m still here. The Orb and my other righty critics will be disappointed to learn that these programming changes impact weekdays only; my 7-10PM weekend show remains untouched. I intend to try to make the most out the tremendous opportunity that I have.

It is editorial endorsement season, and a loud round of cheers was reportedly heard the other day from the pro parks levy folks at Yes For Our Parks, when news broke that they had lost the endorsement from our friend Stefan over at (un)SoundPolitics. (u)SP is kinda the Chicago Cubs of local politics: perennial losers whose endorsement is considered the kiss of death by those who confuse cause with effect. This preeminent local righty blog is more of a looking glass than a window into mainstream political thought — a mirror image of public opinion that tends to reflect the proprietors’ own fantastical take on both policy and the polis.

Take the reliably anti-republican/pro-Republican Stefan, and his curious logic for rejecting the levies:

I like parks too, and am willing to pay a reasonable amount to support them. But the financing mechanism is flawed and the only chance of changing that is rejecting the levy.

The “financing mechanism”…? You mean going before voters for a special levy vote, rather than funding park maintenance and acquisition through the general fund? But isn’t this nickel-and-nickel approach exactly the kind of “direct democracy” for which Stefan and his cohorts routinely argue in their reflexive support for Tim Eyman and his anti-tax/anti-government initiatives?

When Eyman foisted I-747 on voters, with its arbitrary one-percent cap on growth in property tax revenues from existing construction — a rate that doesn’t even account for inflation let alone growth in demand for public services — he argued that local governments could always go directly to voters for special levies and lid lifts. Indeed, he argues that government should always go directly to voters to approve tax and fee increases. And by starving the general fund of adequate revenue growth, he got exactly what he wanted.

Local governments now routinely go to voters with special levies to fund popular and essential public services like parks, libraries and EMS, and while such dedicated levies may make for bad tax policy, elected officials really don’t have any other choice. Over 70-percent of King County’s general fund goes to the criminal justice system, so if Stefan is going to criticize the parks’ “financing mechanism,” he might want to offer up an alternative.

Perhaps he can find one through the looking glass.