Goldy

Wow. Apparently, I live in a $1.5 million home. So how does a semi-impoverished blogger like me afford a mansion like that? Well it all depends on how you The Seattle Times does the math.

Zillow.com “zestimates™” that the modest, South Seattle home I purchased ten years ago for $187K would now set you back a cool half-million bucks, but according to the math wizards at the Times, that number is completely meaningless. No, rather than using present day dollars to calculate the cost of my house — you know, the actual purchase price — the Times insists on valuing my home in terms of “year of expenditure” dollars, ie the principal borrowed plus every penny of interest over the course of the loan.

At least, that’s how the Times insists on calculating the cost of the light rail portion of the Roads and Transit package headed to the ballot this November. Rather than simply reporting the $10.8 billion price of the rail proposal, they insist on presenting a $30 billion price tag after 40 years of interest and inflation is worked in. Likewise, a half-million dollar mortgage at 7-percent would total about $1.5 million in principal and interest over the course of a 40-year loan. See how that works?

But of course, I don’t live in a $1.5 million house. I live in a half-million dollar house. That’s about what it would fetch on the open market, and that’s about what it would cost me to replace it with a comparable house in the same neighborhood. To claim my house is worth three times that price would be just plain silly. And misleading.

The same holds true of light rail.

According to an editorial in today’s Seattle Times…

Reichert is a conservative — maybe too conservative for his district.

Reichert a conservative? Who knew?

There are so many things I’m itching to write about, but a quote the other day from Rep. Dave Reichert (R-Sheriff’s Department) keeps sticking in my craw. The Seattle Times’ David Postman asked Reichert about his unwavering support for the president’s strategy in Iraq, and the congressman’s choice of words was telling.

Reichert still firmly supports President Bush. The congressman is a former sheriff. When he talks about the war he frequently relates it to police work.

Of course, Reichert always relates everything to his police work. I’m told a waiter once asked him if he needed a few more minutes to decide, and he snapped back something about “looking Gary Ridgeway straight in the eyes.” (Did I mention Reichert is a former sheriff?) But I digress…

And in this case he sees parallels between the criticism aimed at Bush and his most famous case, the hunt for the Green River Killer.

“During Green River we were just hammered on by the press and the community and I got hammered by people and criticized and I just feel some of the same pressures are being applied to the president.”

So, um, what the congressman is really telling us about the war in Iraq is that President Bush is the real victim here? … Just like Reichert was during the 18 years of the Green River Killer investigation?

How incredibly narcissistic. Dozens of young women were brutally strangled by Gary Ridgeway — some, years after Reichert personally dismissed Ridgeway as a suspect, early in the investigation — but ultimately it was Reichert who was the victim, hammered and criticized by an unfeeling press and an impatient community. How did he ever survive the pressure?

Likewise, it is not the hundreds of thousands of dead Iraqis or the 3,600 slain American troops and their families who are the victims of the president’s military misadventures… but Bush himself.

I have repeatedly ridiculed the Times for praising Reichert’s “conscience-driven independent streak,” when in fact he has displayed little independence at all. Now I’m not so sure he even has a conscience.

So, imagine you’re a member of a Democratic legislative district, and you’re being asked to endorse a candidate. Dollars to donuts the candidates doing the asking are Democrats, right? Well, if you’re attending the 48th LD endorsement meeting tonight (7PM, Stevenson Elementary School Library, 14220 NE 8th St in Bellevue,) you may be in for a bit of a surprise.

Word has it that incumbent Bellevue City Councilman Phil Noble will be there tonight, asking for the 48th LD endorsement, and backed by at least one prominent local Democratic legislator. But while the council race is technically nonpartisan, Noble’s PDC reports show that he most definitely is not. Indeed, judging by the contributions Noble has both given and received, he’s about as Republican as they come.

Over the past few years Noble has contributed to a rogues gallery of Republican notables, including David Irons Jr., Luke Esser, Jane Hague, Reagan Dunn, Kathy Lambert, Jim Horn and Rodney Tom. In fact, I only recognize one Democratic name on the entire list: 48th LD Rep. Ross Hunter.

And Noble’s list of contributors over the years is equally Republican in pedigree, including Skip Rowley, Bellevue Square Associates (ie Kemper Freeman Jr.), Charles Conner, Washington Assoc. of Realtors, Bennett Homes, Realtors PAC, Rental Housing Assoc., Affordable Housing Council, Luke Esser and Diane Tebelius. It’s like the invitee list to a BIAW cocktail party.

On the other hand, Noble’s challenger, Bellevue small business owner Keri Andrews, is 100-percent Democratic — and 100-percent progressive — sporting endorsements from Progressive Majority, Sierra Club, Washington Conservation Voters, Bellevue Firefighters, WA State Women’s Political Caucus, Darcy Burner, state Senators Eric Oemig and Brian Weinstein, 41st LD Dems and more.

We all know a Democrat when we see one, and Phil Noble ain’t it. I can’t imagine the 48th LD Dems giving him the nod, whatever the political arm-twisting.

UPDATE:
They’re website doesn’t say so, but apparently tonight’s endorsement meeting is a potluck affair at 11522 NE 21st ST (NW corner of 116AVE NE & NE 21st ST.) Potluck starts at 6:15, candidates scheduled to start talking at 7:15. If you’re resident of the 48th, and a real Democrat, please stop by and support the real Democratic candidate.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
Phil Noble spoke at the meeting tonight, and asked the Dems not to endorse in a nonpartisan race, as it would be wrong to insert partisanship into the city council. Keri Andrews was unanimously endorsed.

I’m filling in for Frank Shiers again tonight from 9PM to 1AM on Newsradio 710-KIRO, and, well… I’ve got a jam-packed show.

9PM: Open lines with Allan Prell
Former KIRO host Allan Prell joins me for the hour to talk about his knew book Ka-Ching, and talk about talk radio in general. (Perhaps he’ll give me some tips!”

10PM: Ask the candidate, with Bill Sherman
Bill Sherman, Democratic candidate for King County Prosecutor joins me for the hour to give us a campaign update, and take your calls. Have questions about the criminal justice system? Here’s your chance to ask an expert.

11PM: Is your food safe to eat?
The House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations held a hearing today on “Diminished Capacity: Can the FDA Assure the Safety and Security of the Nation’s Food Supply?” And, well… it wasn’t pretty. Ben Huh of Itcmo.com joins me for the hour for detailed report on today’s hearing, and the latest on our smoldering food safety crisis.

Midnight: Filibustering the war occupation in Iraq
Debate on the Senate floor is ongoing as I type, and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid threatens to continue it all night long? Will the Republicans filibuster? Will the Democrats fold? Tune in and find out.

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

“If we invested one tenth of the amount of time, money, and effort that we do on the war on terrorism on these food safety poisonings, we would reduce, probably by a factor of ten, the poisonings of Americans, which are in the tens of thousands every year. I would suggest in this hearing if we think of this threat in these terms, then we will respond accordingly.”

That was Congressman Jay Inslee at today’s House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations’ hearing on “Diminished Capacity: Can the FDA Assure the Safety and Security of the Nation’s Food Supply?” (Itchmo has thorough coverage of the hearing.) And in fact, the situation is much worse than even Rep. Inslee describes. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control:

An estimated 76 million cases of foodborne disease occur each year in the United States. The great majority of these cases are mild and cause symptoms for only a day or two. Some cases are more serious, and CDC estimates that there are 325,000 hospitalizations and 5,000 deaths related to foodborne diseases each year.

I conclude my piece in The Nation by highlighting that in the six years since 9/11, ten times as many Americans have died from foodborne illness than died in the terrorist attacks. Rep. Inslee rightly points out that had Osama bin Laden been responsible for the E-Coli, melamine and other poisonings, we would do something about it, and at only a fraction of the cost of Bush’s “war on terror.”

But of course, that would require an administration that actually believes that ensuring the safety of our domestic food supply is a legitimate role of government.

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I’m filling in for Frank Shiers tonight on 710-KIRO, and Ben from Itchmo will be my guest in the 11PM hour, talking about today’s food safety hearing.

(Apparently, Dan noticed the empty page first.)

What the Seattle Times said:

Legislation that passed the House last week would begin redeploying troops within 120 days and complete transition to a limited military presence by April 1.

Republican Congressman Dave Reichert of Washington voted with the president, and missed a big opportunity to distinguish himself. This is the direction our country has to take.

[…] There is no good time to get out of Iraq, but once we know we must leave, there is no excuse to put off the decision. Delay is also a decision, the wrong one with enormous costs in human life.

From now until November 2008, Darcy Burner will be relentlessly attacked as lacking the experience necessary to serve this region in Congress, but there should be little doubt how Burner would have voted on the House redeployment bill. She would have exercised the judgment to vote against the president, and with the values of her district. She would have displayed the leadership necessary to start bringing our troops home now, not months from now, and only when political expediency makes it absolutely necessary.

I hope the Times’ editors remember this before they sit down to write their next Reichert endorsement.

UPDATE:
Postman interviews Reichert on Iraq:

Reichert still firmly supports President Bush. The congressman is a former sheriff. When he talks about the war he frequently relates it to police work. And in this case he sees parallels between the criticism aimed at Bush and his most famous case, the hunt for the Green River Killer.

“During Green River we were just hammered on by the press and the community and I got hammered by people and criticized and I just feel some of the same pressures are being applied to the president.”

It should be noted that it took 18 years to catch the Green River Killer, even though they had enough evidence to make Gary Ridgeway a prime suspect early on.

That Reichert references his law enforcement career in response to every question is pathetic. That once again people are dying while he hamfistedly continues his investigation is a tragedy. Why do voters constantly reward such mediocrity?

I’ll be filling in for Frank Shiers tonight on 710-KIRO from 9PM to 1AM. At 10PM will be talking impeachment with Linda Boyd of the Eastside Fellowship of Reconciliation, and I’m sure we’ll be discussing the Iraq filibuster ongoing tonight in the U.S. Senate.

One of the things that jumps out at me from Darryl’s post on the final Q2 fundraising numbers in the Burner/Reichert race is the disparity between the contribution total that Real Clear Politics reports ($192,000) and the number that Dave Reichert’s staff recently gave the Seattle Times’ David Postman ($245,000). Huh.

The difference is mostly explained by a $64,000 transfer from ROMP, the NRCC’s “Retain Our Majority Program”. (Note to NRCC: you’re in the minority.) Apparently, the folks who cover these sort of things for a living don’t consider committee transfers like these as “contributions” when comparing dollars raised. In fact, Real Clear Politics points out that of the 19 “vulnerable House incumbents” on the Republicans’ ROMP list, only one raised less money than Reichert during the second quarter: NY Congressman Randy Kuhl, who pulled in a paltry $68,000.

And when you delve a little deeper into Reichert’s numbers they look even worse, especially as an early measure of his relative organizational strength and grassroots support. Of the $257,000 he ultimately reported, only $70,800 came from 86 individual contributors in Washington state — the rest came from PACs, out-of-state residents and outside committees. Compare that to Burner, whose $199,000 haul included $156,675 from 120 individual Washington residents.

I’m just sayin’.

UPDATE:
In the comment thread, RonK suggests that I might have missed Reichert’s small, unitemized donations. I’m about to go on air, so don’t have the time to go back to my spreadsheet, but if so, the point remains the same, even if the numbers above aren’t exact: the bulk of Reichert’s money comes from PACs, out-of-state contributors and ROMP, whereas the bulk of Darcy’s money comes from individual, Washington state contributors.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
I’m certainly no FEC expert, but after further review of the FEC filings, my original post appears technically accurate as an apple-to-apple comparison of in-state individual contributions. In addition, Reichert raised $25,052 in unitemized, individual contributions, while Burner raised $21,286. But since these are “unitemized,” they do not provide the information necessary to evaluate in-state support. Even if one were to assume that most of these unitemized contributions came from in-state, that would not change the premise of this post.

Daniel Kirkdoffer is demonstrating his eerie psychic powers over at On The Road to 2008:

Congressman Reichert has a tendency to flip. Sometimes he’ll simply flop. Often, he’ll change his position on an issue during the time it is being considered by the U.S. House.

We saw him flip on stem cell research.

We saw him flop on raising the minimum wage, before finally supporting a Democratic bill that did just that.

We saw him vote for ANWR drilling, while simultaneously stating his was against it.

Sometimes we’re not sure what exactly is driving his votes, as he has stated that he often votes how his party tells him to vote.

So I’m here to predict that later this year, Dave Reichert will once again flip, but this time on an issue he has voted with the Bush administration 100% of the time: the Iraq occupation.

Of course Reichert will eventually flip-flop on the Iraq war occupation. He’ll have to… at least, if he wants to win reelection. With a 100-percent Bush/Cheney voting record on Iraq in the face of a rising sentiment to bring our troops home, Reichert must either flop where he once flipped, or follow the President’s lead in flipping the bird to public opinion. I’m betting his handlers will convince him to choose the former.

So let’s start a betting pool. Post in the comment thread your prediction of when Reichert will flip-flop on Iraq — that is vote, or make a public statement in opposition to Bush administration policy — and the person who comes closest will win a pitcher of beer (or the cash equivalent) courtesy of HA.

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

7PM: Open lines with Rep. Adam Smith
Congressman Adam Smith represents Washington’s 9th Congressional District, and he’ll be joining me for the hour to take your calls. This week he demanded that “We must change course in Iraq to protect our country.” This is your chance to give him your support or a piece of your mind on this and other pressing issues.

8PM: Politics and Music
Tom Morello, best known as the guitarist for Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave, is playing his acoustic protest songs as The Night Watchman, July 18th at Seattle’s Crocodile Cafe. I had a chance to interview him earlier this week about the intersection between politics and music. We’ll play the tape, and then come back in the second half of the hour to continue the conversation with Howie Klein, a former president of Reprise Records, who is now one of the nation’s leading progressive bloggers. (Down With Tyranny and Firedoglake.)

9PM: Um… is the right crazy?
Are they nuts? You know, stuff like this, and especially, this. I mean, really.

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

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
All you Frank Shiers fans, watch out! I’ll be filling in for Frank Monday and Tuesday from 9PM to 1AM. And all you Allan Prell fans, tune in! He’ll be my guest in the 9PM hour on Tuesday night.

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

7PM: The Stranger Hour with Josh & Erica
The Stranger’s Josh Feit and Erica Barnett join me for the hour for a round-up of the week in state and local politics, including Dino Rossi’s “idea” man, the continuing saga of the OPARBRBRBRB, and the latest on Seattle’s weird war on nightlife. Also, Erica plans to set me straight on something or other.

8PM: Can a godless atheist like me be a patriot?
In following the news of the “Christians and patriots” who loudly protested when a Hindu clergyman gave the US Senate’s morning prayer, I came across a quote from George H. W. Bush, (the President’s father,) given while he was running for president in 1987: “No, I don’t know that atheists should be considered as citizens, nor should they be considered patriots. This is one nation under God.” I’m an atheist. Can I be considered a patriot or even a citizen?

9PM: What’s going on south of the border?
TJ from Loaded Orygun joins me for our monthly round-up of what’s going on south of the Washington border.

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

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
Tune in tomorrow at 7PM for a live call-in with US Rep. Adam Smith. At 8PM, Tom Morello (from Rage Against the Machine and Audioslave), blogger and former recording industry executive Howie Klein and I will talk about the intersection between politics and music.

“Sound Transit says errors inflated cost of light-rail plan“

There are several ways to read this ambiguous headline from today’s Seattle Times, but I’m guessing that for the region’s transit skeptics the message is loud and clear: us taxpayers are gonna have to pick up the cost of yet another Sound Transit screw up.

But if you glanced at today’s Seattle P-I, you might come away with an entirely differently impression.

“Light rail estimate lowered“

Huh?

To be fair, both papers accurately report the story, as demonstrated by the Times’ succinct lede: “The long-term cost of extending light-rail beyond Seattle is about $7 billion less than Sound Transit previously said, according to revised figures the agency issued Friday.” But not every reader reads beyond the headline on every story.

I’m not implying any conscious bias or intent to mislead; the Times headline was most likely just a poor choice of words. But as I’ve previously argued (with little sympathy from my colleagues in the legacy media,) headlines and ledes do matter, and they shape the way readers interpret otherwise factual reporting. Most reporters and editors claim to be objective — and no doubt, most attempt to live up to that goal — but what they choose to report, what words they choose to use, which facts they emphasize and where these stories are placed in the paper are all subjective decisions.

I have no formal journalistic training apart from a single high school class and a couple years on the school paper, but I do remember being taught to put the most important information near the top (a rule I routinely violate, usually for literary reasons.) And, um… you can’t get much nearer the top than the headline.

Darcy Burner will be the Blue America special guest today on Firedoglake. Howie Klein will moderate, and Darcy will answer questions live in the comment thread, from 11AM to 1PM.

Howie had the chance to interview Darcy earlier in the week, and you can read his take over at his blog, Down With Tyranny. A former president of Reprise/Warner Bros. Records, Howie will also be my guest 8:30PM Sunday night on The David Goldstein Show talking about the intersection between music and politics.

UPDATE:
The post is now up on Firedoglake. Click here to join the conversation.