Goldy

You know, there are a lot of things I miss about living in Philadelphia, but 95-degree heat is not one of them. I’m just sayin’.

Auburn WA’s annual Good Ol’ Days celebration advertises itself as a “Rip Roarin’ Whoop Dee Doo” in which locals “Celebrate like they did in the Good Ol’ Days!”

Well judging from this photo snapped by HA reader Kevin Barry at yesterday’s Grand Parade, way back in the Good Ol’ Days, Auburn was apparently a part of the Good Ol’ Confederacy. Huh. Who knew?

Struck by the incongruity of seeing a Confederate flag proudly paraded down the streets of Auburn (followed only a few moments later by a glad-handing Dino Rossi), Barry forwarded his pictures to Auburn City Council members and event organizers, asking if there is “really a rash of southern pride and confederate heritage here in the deep Northwest?”

To which Auburn Mayor Pete Lewis promptly responded:

“That was part of the Optimists public remembrance march for a very good and kind man named Joe Jenkins. Good Old Days is a privately run and funded event and the Optimists were paying tribute to a fallen hero.”

Joe Jenkins was apparently a longtime local volunteer and community leader whose contributions are no doubt worth honoring, but unless he was “a fallen hero” of the Civil War — and, you know, fought for the South — I fail to see the appropriateness of remembering him with a Confederate flag.

In Auburn, Alabama maybe. But Auburn, Washington… not so much.

And while I suppose the Optimist Club has the right to parade a Confederate flag down public streets — free speech, and all that — it’s had to imagine why Mayor Lewis would defend it, so callously dismissing Barry’s legitimate concerns. To many Americans, the Confederate flag is a symbol of racism, oppression and hatred, especially when displayed outside the cultural milieu of the Deep South. So if Joe Jenkins was as “good and kind” as Mayor Lewis says he was, would this really be how he wanted to be remembered?

Or maybe, as a relative newcomer to the region, I simply have no idea what the “Good Ol’ Days” were like in cities like Auburn?

Nahum 1:2-6
The Lord is a jealous God, filled with vengeance and rage. He takes revenge on all who oppose him and continues to rage against his enemies!

The Lord is slow to get angry, but his power is great, and he never lets the guilty go unpunished. He displays his power in the whirlwind and the storm. The billowing clouds are the dust beneath his feet.

At his command the oceans dry up, and the rivers disappear. The lush pastures of Bashan and Carmel fade, and the green forests of Lebanon wither.

In his presence the mountains quake, and the hills melt away; the earth trembles, and its people are destroyed.

Who can stand before his fierce anger? Who can survive his burning fury? His rage blazes forth like fire, and the mountains crumble to dust in his presence.

Discuss.

Dear America,

Fuck off. Really. Fuck off.

Most of you couldn’t give a shit about New Yorkers and New York City before 9/11, and the truth is, most of you couldn’t give a shit about NYC after. So who the fuck do you think you are to tell New Yorkers what to do with the former World Trade Center site and the surrounding neighborhood?

I mean, you don’t see New Yorkers blowing spittle on FOX News angrily telling Newt Gingrich how he and his fellow Southerners should commemorate their crushing, humiliating defeat in that stupid, fucking, immoral Civil War they provoked, so who the fuck is he to tell New Yorkers how to commemorate their own personal tragedy? Honestly Newt, you don’t know what the fuck you’re talking about, so please… shut the fuck up!

And as for the rest of angry, white, Christian America, you can all just shut the fuck up too. You want to dictate to an American city how to commemorate the site of a terrorist attack, try Oklahoma City. After all, they’re mostly angry, white, Christian Americans too. As were the terrorists. But have you ever been to New York City? Not so much.

NYC is the melting pot the rest of the nation merely fantasizes itself to be, filled with people of every imaginable religion, color, creed, ethnicity or whatever, who all manage to get along with each other surprisingly well. Hell… the UN building might be NYC’s least diverse neighborhood.

So if New Yorkers decide to build a mosque within sight of “Gound Zero” — if they decide that embracing the diversity and tolerance that makes America great is a bigger “fuck you” to al Qaeda than a thousand pilotless drones — well, it’s none of your fucking business unless you are a New Yorker yourself. They have to live and work with each other. You don’t.

So fuck off, America. Fuck off.

Love and kisses,

Goldy

I haven’t publicized it, but I kinda-sorta have a Twitter feed, that so far I only really use to tweet my new posts. Anyway, feel free to follow me. Or whatever it is folks do with Twitter.

Does Dino Rossi oppose legal abortion under any circumstances?

Pressed at the Spokane breakfast forum, Rossi said he opposes abortion for “anything other than maybe rape, incest or life of the mother.”

Um… “maybe” rape, incest or life of the mother? Does Rossi mean “maybe” like, “maybe I oppose it, maybe I don’t… I haven’t really given it much thought”…? That’s kinda hard to believe considering he’s been running for office for so long, and has been asked this question so many times. So how could he possibly be unsure whether he supports an exemption for rape, incest or life of the mother?

Or maybe he means “maybe” as in “maybe… depending on the circumstances.” Like, if a black man rapes a white woman, then Rossi supports the right to an abortion, but if it’s date rape, well, she was probably asking for it, so she should carry the baby to term.

Or maybe Rossi isn’t nearly so nuanced, and knows exactly where he stands on this issue, but just refuses to say?

Is it just me, or is Google Ads pretty much feeding HA exclusively Dino Rossi ads these past few days? In fact, I’m getting almost exclusively Rossi ads no matter where I go. I feel like I’m being stalked.

The Seattle Times editorial board says “Congress should be ashamed” of a bill that sends $10 billion to states to avert nationwide teacher layoffs, because it diverts money from food stamps and child nutrition programs. But you don’t need to read between the lines to see that the Times’ ed board really just views this bill as yet another opportunity to attack organized labor.

Teachers unions single-mindedly urged lawmakers to save their members’ jobs even as many Americans lose theirs. … Union leaders may see this as a victory and testament of their clout and influence. But children’s advocates are right to be disgusted.

[…] Congress also failed to use the money to exact reform. For example, advocates for poor and minority children failed to persuade lawmakers to make school districts shed a long-standing practice of teacher layoffs that prioritize seniority over other factors, such as effectiveness.

Education is the best investment of public dollars, but only if spending drives improvements, rather than rewarding a powerful interest group.

In other words, education is a good investment of public dollars, but only if spending is used to break the evil teachers unions.

Honestly, you didn’t have to read any further than the lede — which describes the bill as a “misguided bailout for teachers” — to figure out where the Times was going. A bailout…? Really? And for teachers?

Calling this bill a “bailout for teachers” is like calling the GM takeover a “bailout for autoworkers,” or the Wall Street rescue a “bailout for homeowners.” It implies and confers blame on the teachers for their own precarious situation. According to the Times, Congress isn’t bailing out school districts or the families they serve, but the teachers… because, you know, they’re the ones responsible for fucking up state and district budgets, I guess.

I mean, hell… why not just fire them all and start over from scratch, like President Reagan did with the air traffic controllers? Forget about teaching children; what we really need to do is teach those uppity, union bastards a lesson they’ll never forget.

Oh, and by the way, if you can trust the Times’ numbers, the bill saves 3,000 teaching jobs right here in Washington state, more than 5% of our state’s roughly 59,000 classroom teachers. Lose those teachers, and you pretty much increase class size by another one or two students each. And apparently, the Times is okay with that.

The Oregonian’s Jeff Mapes slams Dino Rossi for slamming a WSU researcher:

Usually, politicians like to promote the research being conducted at their local universities.

But Republican Dino Rossi is accusing a professor at Washington State University’s Vancouver campus of conducting “one of those boondoggle projects” involving federal stimulus money.

WSU psychology professor Michael Morgan received a $148,000 grant to study whether cannabinoids could enhance the ability of opioids to relieve pain. But cannabinoids are the active ingredients in marijuana, and of course, we can’t have any of that:

“Washington state taxpayers are tired of their money going up in smoke,” Rossi said in a press release Thursday.  “This bill isn’t going to stimulate anything other than the sale of Cheetos.”

Ha, ha, ha… Cheetos. Clever. Except, Prof. Morgan’s study has nothing to do with Cheetos. Or pot smoking. Or even pot.

Morgan said his research doesn’t involve any pot smoking.  Instead part of it involves dosing rats with a synthetic cannabinoid.  But any connection with marijuana is enough to bring out the stoner jokes and make it all sound like a waste of taxpayer money.

Huh. So I can only assume that if Dino Rossi knows that cannabinoids are the active ingredient in marijuana, he must also know that opioids are the active ingredient in, you know, opium, from which heroin is manufactured. And since he voices no opposition to the study of opioids, I can only assume he’s in favor of opium’s legalization and widespread use. In fact, it’s reasonable to wonder if Rossi is a smackhead himself?

Which of course, would explain a lot about Rossi’s 2010 campaign.

One more thought on the WSJ/NBC poll that shows Republicans with a huge generic edge in the South, but trailing Dems in every other region. Is it possible that the so-called “enthusiasm gap” is actually exaggerating what advantage the Republicans have?

For example, let’s take a look at 2008, arguably a good year for House Dems, in which Washington state Republicans garnered almost 41% of the vote (almost identical to McCain’s share of WA’s presidential tally), but only 33% of our nine U.S. House seats. Of course nine seats only divide up so many ways, so you’d pretty much expect 41% of the vote to get you either 33% or 44% of the seats.

But now take a look at 2002, a pretty good year for Republicans nationwide. In that election, Washington Republican House candidates pulled in over 46% of the votes cast between the two major parties, but still only won 33% of the available seats.

Perhaps WA Republicans really are more enthused than WA Democrats this year, which would surely show up in generic ballot surveys. But as 2002 shows, unless that enthusiasm is distributed in the right districts, it might not have that much of an impact on the final result. I mean, does it really matter how much shoe-ins like Cathy McMorris-Rodgers, Doc Hastings, Norm Dicks and Jim McDermott win by? Does it have any impact on WA-03 how much more Republicans in WA-04 hate Democrats this year than last?

I suppose before the GOP became a regional party, mostly confined to the South and Southern-like rural and ex-urban districts — you know, like back in 1994 — the generic ballot might have been a pretty damn good predictor of congressional results, but now…? I’m not so sure.

But I guess in a few more months, we’ll find out.

A new WSJ/NBC poll (via Daily Kos) reinforces my sense that our nation’s profound regional divide is just one of the reasons why 2010 won’t be like 1994:

The GOP has a HUGE generic-ballot edge in the South (52%-31%), but it doesn’t lead anywhere else. In the Northeast, Dems have a 55%-30% edge; in the Midwest, they lead 49%-38%; and in the West, it’s 44%-43%.

Heading into the 1994 election the Dems held roughly 59% of House seats in every region of the nation, and while they ended up losing big everywhere, they got walloped in the South. Heading into the 2010 election the Dems control the exact same number of seats they did heading into 1994, but the regional disparity is startling, ranging from 82% in the Northeast to 43% in the South.

Here in the “Far West” the Dems hold a pre-1994-like 63% majority, but it’s hard to imagine 1994-like results. Back then Washington alone flipped from 8-1 D to 7-2 R, but this time around WA-03 is the only truly promising GOP pickup opportunity in the state, and even that’s gotta be ranked a toss-up. I suppose Rep. Rick Larsen needs to look over his shoulders in WA-02, but by that measure so does Republican Rep. Dave Reichert in WA-08. So a safe prediction might be a net one-seat Republican pickup here in Washington compared to a six-seat pickup in 1994. Maybe two at the most. Maybe none.

As for the rest of the West, Republicans can maybe count on picking up a seat in Idaho, one or two in California, and two or three more throughout the rest of the region, while almost certainly losing their recent special election pickup in Hawaii. Maybe. That wouldn’t make for a good year for Democrats, but it’s far from an electoral repudiation.

Of course the poll analysis does include this regional caveat:

Many of the congressional districts Republicans are targeting outside of the South resemble some of those Southern districts they’re hoping to win back in November — where you have whiter and older voters.

True, but this just serves to further point out the difference between 1994 and 2010, at least here in this Washington, for back in 1994, two of the six WA seats the GOP picked up were WA-04 (Jay Inslee) and WA-05 (Speaker Tom Foley)… exactly the kinda older, whiter, more conservative districts the R’s are now targeting. But, you know, you can’t win back a seat you’ve never given up.

The point is, the 45-seat pickup necessary for a Republican takeover this time around is made all the more difficult by our current regional divide. The Republican’s generic advantage is staggering in the South, but there is so much less low-hanging Democratic fruit down in Dixie than there was 16 years ago, the R’s simply can’t take back Congress without a somewhat comparable national wave. And at the moment, I just don’t see that sort of wave reaching the Pacific.

While riding light rail downtown to a morning meeting, I had some time to think about my transportation choices, and the sometimes not-so-conscious cost-benefit analyses we make on a daily basis.

Of course, this morning’s ride was a no brainer, the four buck round trip fare less than the cost of a parking meter, let alone a downtown parking lot. Plus, the cool, overcast morning made the 15 minute walk to Othello Station a pleasure, at least in the sense that I didn’t arrive at my destination completely covered in sweat.

But let’s say my daughter was with me, which would double that $4 fare to $8. If we’re gonna be downtown for more than hour or two, that makes economic sense, but for a relatively quick trip, not so much… especially considering that I still have to amortize the cost of owning a car, regardless of how much I use it.

The anti-rail folks complain about the high cost of the public subsidy, but I can’t help but wonder if the subsidy simply isn’t high enough. For in a city designed to virtually require car ownership, and in a nation where the public subsidies for our automobile culture are largely hidden (you know, things like the BP oil spill, the Iraq War and global climate change, let alone more obvious stuff like roads), it can be hard to justify the added cost of using mass transit when there’s a perfectly good car sitting idle in your driveway. In fact, I personally tend to use light rail more out of convenience (parking/traffic) than any real cost saving.

So my question for the rest of you is this: why do you or don’t you use mass transit, and would lower or higher fares change your behavior?

Flew in late last night (and yes, my arms are tired), but have a meeting scheduled relatively early this morning, so don’t expect much from me until after noon. In the meanwhile, enjoy a little John Stewart.

I hate to dwell on this too much, but I can’t help but emphasize how incredibly dishonest the Seattle Times editorial board is when it misleadingly compares I-1098’s proposed high-earners tax to California and Oregon’s broad-based income taxes:

The new tax created by I-1098 would top out at 9 percent of adjusted gross income, with no deductions. That’s not quite the highest rate in the country: Oregon’s, at 11 percent, is at the top. But Oregon has zero sales tax. We would have high rates of sales and income taxes, which would be putting up a sign saying: Don’t invest here. Don’t create jobs here.

California did that. Its state income tax on high earners is 10.8 percent, and its sales tax mostly ranges from 8.75 to 9.75 percent. Such high levels of tax have not brought wealth and balanced budgets to California. Skilled people are leaving.

In fact, it’s not anywhere near the highest rate in the country, because I-1098’s tax is only imposed on earnings in excess of the income threshold, rather than on all income, as in Oregon and California. For example, an Oregon household earning $400,000 would pay $38,274 in state income taxes, while an equally fortunate California household would pay $33,660.

By comparison, under I-1098, a Washington household earning $400,000 would pay… well… zero. Zilch. Nada. Bupkis. Absolutely nothing. And according to a new OFM report, the same would be true for 98.8% of Washington households.

So this idea that Washington’s top rate would be one of the highest in the nation is a lie of omission if I ever saw one… you know, kinda like when the Times argued that even high-tax/socialist Sweden eliminated its estate tax, while failing to inform readers that they replaced it with a 1.5% annual wealth tax.

Yeah, and I’m the partisan spinmeister.

In one of what will eventually prove to be many editorials against Initiative 1098’s proposed high earner’s income tax, the Seattle Times warns readers “Don’t Calitaxicate Washington,” which I suppose they thought was a really clever pun, but which merely comes off as just kinda stupid. You know, like the rest of the editorial:

BILL Gates Sr. — father of the famous one — recently dropped $400,000 into the campaign to convince Washington voters to saddle themselves with a state income tax. On Aug. 3, the Service Employees International Union in Washington, D.C., put $200,000 into the same effort to change Washington law. The total raised by Initiative 1098 approaches $2 million.

Um, I’m not sure what the return address is on the check, and there are all kinds of rules about which funds come from where, but the SEIU money going into the I-1098 campaign is coming from SEIU locals and their members right here in this Washington, predominantly SEIU 775NW, which represents health care workers. I mean the Times would like you to think that it’s being funded by evil, out-of-state special interests, but it’s not. It’s the same folks who fund a lot of progressive causes in Washington state… you know, the folks who represent working people.

The cash being poured into the pro-1098 campaign aims to convince you, if you earn less than $200,000, that you will not pay the tax. You may not, in the first years.

Um… you will not pay the tax. “May not” makes it sound like maybe you will, maybe you won’t. But you won’t. Individuals earning less than $200,000, and households earning less than $400,000, will absolutely, positively not pay this tax.

But the tax will be expanded. Taxes always are.

No they are not. And if the income tax is ever expanded to lower income households, it will only be through a vote of the people. I mean, can you think of another major tax increase that hasn’t come before the people via initiative or referendum? Even the legislature’s recently passed temporary, 2-cent per can soda pop tax is coming before voters this November. That’s just the way things work around here.

And even before this happens, you will feel it, because it will sap income, investment, jobs and pay all across the state.

Because… why? The Times doesn’t explain how a tax on the top three percent of households, who would still enjoy one of the lowest effective tax rates in the nation, would sap income, investment, jobs and pay for the rest of us. They don’t explain it, because they can’t. They just believe it because the Soviet Union collapsed or something, and thus taxing wealthy people must be bad. Or something.

Washington is one of nine states with no tax on wages and salaries.

Washington also has the most regressive tax structure in the nation, and by far. That means if you earn less than $20,000 a year you live in the highest taxed state in the union, but if you earn over $200,000 a year you live in one of the lowest. And the Times is okay with that.

This is a big advantage in recruiting people to work here, and in keeping people from leaving here. When Gov. Chris Gregoire went to the Paris Air Show in her first term to recruit aerospace companies to Washington, the first item of her sales pitch was: no state income tax.

It may be a recruiting pitch, but there’s no credible study to show that state income tax rates have a substantial impact on individuals’ decision to come or leave. I mean, Nevada has no income tax, and it has the highest unemployment rate in the nation. And I don’t particularly see the economy or population booming in South Dakota or Wyoming either. It’s a bullshit argument.

It’s a selling point. An asset. And more than that: It’s a bonus for living here.

Huh. The Blethens sure don’t think much of their home state. I thought the bonus for living here was living here. Who’d have thought the Times would make an even worse tourism board than they do an editorial board?

The new tax created by I-1098 would top out at 9 percent of adjusted gross income, with no deductions. That’s not quite the highest rate in the country: Oregon’s, at 11 percent, is at the top. But Oregon has zero sales tax.

Let’s be clear. I-1098 would impose a 5% tax on household income in excess of $400,000 ($200,000 for an individual), and 9% on household income in excess of $1 million ($500,000 per individual). That means a family earning a half a million dollars a year would pay an additional $5,000 a year in state taxes… compared to $46,500 in California, which taxes a household earning $500,000 9.3% on every dollar earned. Of course, state income taxes are fully deductible when calculating federal income tax. So really, you’re looking at an additional $3,250 dollars in taxes a year (compared to $30,225 in CA), out of a half million dollars earned. That’s an effective rate of only about 0.65%. I don’t think anybody’s picking up and moving to Texas over that.

Of course as incomes go higher, so does the effective rate; a household earning $2 million a year would pay an additional $78,000 after the federal deduction, for an effective rate of about 3.9%. But then, the higher the income the less the marginal value of the tax paid, and this would still leave a WA two-millionaire with one of the lowest effective tax rates in the nation.

We would have high rates of sales and income taxes, which would be putting up a sign saying: Don’t invest here. Don’t create jobs here.

Of course, what the Times fails to mention is that I-1098 would also slash the state portion of the property tax by 20%, while exempting 80% of businesses from the onerous B&O tax. Oops.

Meanwhile, with I-1098’s top rate still below that of other Western states like Oregon, California and Hawaii, where exactly are folks gonna go? Idaho? Sure, Idaho’s top rate is only 7.8 percent, but it hits nearly everybody, applying to income over $26,418 a year, and to every dollar earned. And… well… it’s Idaho.

California did that. Its state income tax on high earners is 10.8 percent, and its sales tax mostly ranges from 8.75 to 9.75 percent. Such high levels of tax have not brought wealth and balanced budgets to California. Skilled people are leaving.

If Bill Gates Sr. and the SEIU push I-1098 past the voters, they will succeed only in bringing California’s luck here. And that would be a sad day.

So rather than emulating California’s example of a more fair tax structure, the Times would prefer we follow California’s example of decimating its once envied K-12 and higher education systems… the foundation on which the state built its economy into the eighth largest in the world.

I mean, the whole tortured “Calitaxicate” pun is a giant, smelly, red herring. Most states have an income tax. What sets California apart is not how it raises revenue, but how it spends it.

What this state needs is investment in new ideas and new work — and a tax system that smiles upon it.

What this state really needs is investment in our children. Do we want to see the state continue to cut funding for K-12 education? Do we want tuition and fees at state universities eventually rise to the point where we price the middle class out of a college education while financial aid fails to keep up? Do we want to knock tens of thousands of children off the health care rolls? Because that’s what happens if we don’t pass I-1098, and we don’t do anything else.

And that, more than anything else, is what risks turning Washington into California.