Friday before a holiday. From KTUU-TV in Anchorage:

In a stunning announcement, Gov. Sarah Palin said Friday morning she will resign her office in a few weeks.

Speculation has swirled for weeks, perhaps months that Palin would not seek re-election in 2010 as she pursues a political career on the national stage. The former vice presidential candidate has long been rumored to be considering a run at the Republican presidential nomination in 2012.

Palin did not address those rumors at the press conference at her Wasilla home, during which she did not take questions from reporters.

Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell will be inaugurated as her successor at the Governor’s Picnic at Pioneer Park in Fairbanks on Sunday, July 26, Palin said.

How very interesting.

Maybe we should encourage Republicans not to fill out census forms. From the Federal Eye blog at WaPo, in regards to wild statements made by Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., concerning the census.

Republican colleagues have now called her boycott illogical and illegal.

“Every elected representative in this country should feel a responsibility to encourage full participation in the census. To do otherwise is to advocate for a smaller share of federal funding for our constituents,” Reps. Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.), Lynn Westmoreland (R-Ga.) and John Mica (R-Fla.) said in a statement. The trio is members the House Census Oversight Subcommittee.

It only took them two weeks to figure out Bachmann’s crazy ideas would hurt them.

Your modern Republican Party at work. Well, not work so much, more like hiking alone.

Columnist Steve Duin at The Oregonian recounts the troubling tale of a Clark County man falsely charged with luring a child. The kid later recanted his accusation. It’s a little involved so if you wish please click through and read Duin’s column.

The story raises many questions about the conduct of the Clark County Sheriff’s Department and the Clark County Prosecutor’s office. I mean, if a “person of interest” (or whatever he was termed) has telephone records and presumably co-workers that can prove he was at work at the time of the alleged incident, it shouldn’t be that hard to figure out. If this individual was indeed formally charged, as Duin’s column seems to state, then that’s pretty bad, even if he was eventually exonerated.

Unfortunately for taxpayers, it sounds like Clark County may wind up getting to explain itself in federal court. So while we all want to protect kids, there are some basic things that have to be done in the process. Otherwise you wind up with a Wenatchee Witch Hunt sort of situation.

One thing Duin’s column doesn’t touch on is that this incident occurred in the wake of the horrifying murder of an area seventh grader. That wouldn’t excuse sloppy investigative work, but I do recall that the number of “stranger danger” alerts coming home from the school district spiked after that. People were understandably on edge, but it’s the job of professionals to seek facts.

The other notable thing about Duin’s column is where it appears, ie, in The Oregonian. While The Columbian has some good reporters, there are far too few of them to adequately cover a county of around 430,000 people, and it’s really starting to show. In a normal place such a story would have been dug up by a beat reporter who was asking basic questions like “Who is this guy you charged with luring?”

Oregon media is kind of hit and miss on this side of the river, to tell the truth. They’ll pick up big stories, but the day to day stuff doesn’t usually interest them that much. I’ve been informed by a reliable source about some armed robberies in Clark County that are not even being reported upon. God help us if we ever have a major disaster here, we don’t really have a functioning media infrastructure.

TPMTV has a clip of terrorism “expert” Michael Scheuer telling Glenn Beck that the United State’s best hope is for Osama bin Laden to use a “major weapon” against us. TPM uses the word “unhinged” to characterize Scheuer’s statement.

One shudders to contemplate where wingnuttery goes from here. Stamping their feet and holding their breathe hasn’t worked, and just makes people laugh at them. One huge problem for the GOP: the foot stampers and breathe holders represent their base.

But I’ve laid in a big supply of tea bags, BTW.

It’s going to be hot, you know, and iced tea is delicious on a hot day. I’m not going to walk around with tea bag earrings like a fool, that would be a waste of delicious tea. You kind of wonder if there is a secret tea conglomerate astro-turfing operation at work in this country.

In a similar vein, we should just tell the righties the Obama administration is going to ban candy corn so there will be a run on candy corn, and the candy corn makers can make big profits while fueling right wing fears of a world with no candy corn. They can have candy corn shows at fairgrounds and armories around the country, selling and trading cheap swag emblazoned with various candy corn themes. I’m pretty sure Patrick Henry said “Give me candy corn or give me death.”

Yeah, it’s getting nearly impossible to mock the righties. Sorry, I’ve given it my best shot. Have a nice day and remember to stay hydrated with delicious tea.

At the always excellent TPMMuckraker, Zachary Roth points out the lack of competition in health care.

But the notion that most American consumers enjoy anything like a competitive marketplace for health care is flatly false. And a study issued last month by a pro-reform group makes that strikingly clear.

The report, released by Health Care for America Now (HCAN), uses data compiled by the American Medical Association to show that 94 percent of the country’s insurance markets are defined as “highly concentrated,” according to Justice Department guidelines. Predictably, that’s led to skyrocketing costs for patients, and monster profits for the big health insurers. Premiums have gone up over the past six years by more than 87 percent, on average, while profits at ten of the largest publicly traded health insurance companies rose 428 percent from 2000 to 2007.

Far from healthy market competition, HCAN describes the situation as “a market failure where a small number of large companies use their concentrated power to control premium levels, benefit packages, and provider payments in the markets they dominate.”

Most Americans are not going to find this surprising, but as opponents of the public option blather on about the “free market,” it’s definitely worth keeping in mind that the health care market is about as free as the west coast electricity market was during the Enron era.

Just once I would like to see advocates of “market solutions” admit that oligopolies are a distortion in the system that have to be addressed, or things break down. But then, none of this is ever actually about “free markets,” it’s about lining the pockets of whatever industry is paying for astro-turf groups to sing the praises of “free markets.” Just substitute the words “coal” or “banking” in their arguments and it’s always the same baloney. Actual competition is the one thing they fear most.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZrnVNZpnvRI[/youtube]

The real animals, not the ones from Red Dawn.

A remote camera has captured images of a creature not seen in Washington’s southern Cascades in at least a generation: a wolverine.

The Cascade Carnivore Project recorded the images late this spring on a motion-activated camera established on Mount Adams, confirming reported sightings by hikers and another image captured on the Yakama Indian Reservation in 2005.

Sorry, didn’t mean to get the nativists all excited there. There are no commies attacking Texas this morning.

Still, kind of cool.

Down here in Vancouver, the community is responding to last weekend’s racist graffiti. For instance:

Other community leaders have publicly denounced the incident. Clark County Sheriff Garry Lucas issued a statement this week saying, “these recent criminal acts are reprehensible and this sort of conduct should not be tolerated.”

Still not sure why efforts to do something positive about this rotten little graffiti attack seem to make some folks so upset. No, it won’t change the entire universe forever, but it might let the 16 year old kid (and many of her neighbors who were also victimized) who had her name and vile epithets and swastikas sprayed on the street know that folks care what happened and will do what they can.

Evil and good men doing nothing and all that sort of business, you know?

UPDATE—Courtesy of the rabbit in comments, it seems there has been a similar incident in Everett.

Sheriff’s spokeswoman Rebecca Hover says at least five vehicles were found early Friday with painted messages; several were painted with racial slurs.

At least two vehicle owners are minorities.

In the end, most of our delegation voted for Waxman-Markley, including Dave Reichert and Brian Baird. (Props to Northwest Progressive Institute.)

Hopefully overall a start.

The fairly extensive racist graffiti attack last weekend in Vancouver has prompted Aneurin to put up the PayPal button for donations to the account originally set up last year when the car of two Obama supporters was similarly defaced. The account is intended to help victims defray some of the costs of repairs and cleanup, although equally important is that the community send a message that this sort of stuff will not be met with silence.

It was heartening last year that several generous donations came from the Seattle area, that was greatly appreciated.

The Obama supporters’ car was repainted with some help from a very kind local body shop. It’s kind of hard to say how much can be done financially with the current incident, as it was far more widespread, involving multiple vehicles, homes and other property. Maybe some folks insurance deductibles could be met or something. Like it’s not hard enough in the economy right now, having some racist idiots spray painting stuff is maddening.

A 16 year old high school student who seemed to be one of the main targets of last weekend’s incident turns out to be a highly regarded basketball star at Fort Vancouver High School. She spoke to a Portland television station about the graffiti.

I’m optimistic that community leaders here in Clark County are concerned about this kind of stuff and are going to speak out about it. Placing plastic pelicans in someone’s lawn is a prank, spraying swastikas and hate messages, not so much.

From an article at The Oregonian about how California may shutter its poison control center. Sounds like we’re not much better.

In Washington state, lawmakers have pulled 35 percent of the poison control program’s budget, forcing the layoff of its medical director. Without that position filled, the program risks losing its accreditation, which is needed to qualify for federal money.

For now, outgoing director William Hurley plans to volunteer to help keep it afloat while officials scramble for funding and consider filling the position on a part-time basis.

“We’re hoping this is a temporary problem,” Hurley said. “These cuts don’t leave us in a long-term sustainable position.”

We can’t even do basic shit like have a decent poison control center? That’s beyond pathetic. I suppose all the wee kiddies should just teach themselves to read warning labels in their overcrowded classrooms. Better yet, we can send the center out to an overseas shop but make sure the “free market” works by giving some well-connected, heavy-on-the-lobbyists firm a big old contract to farm it out for us.

This is the price we all pay when politicians make stupid, irresponsible pledges in order to get elected rather than stand up to the know-nothings.

But how good a person is Hurley for helping out gratis? Maybe he should be governor.

From Chicago Tribune:

Promising to continue to make the investigation of mortgage fraud a priority, federal authorities in Chicago announced charges in five schemes on Tuesday that involved properties ranging from dilapidated houses on the South Side to pricey condominiums in a River North high-rise.

The cases included charges against 37 people and four companies, and some $48 million in mortgages that allegedly were fraudulently obtained.

I’m reminded of a case from my home town back in Kansas that finally saw some measure of justice late last year. From Kansas City Business Journal in Dec. of 2008:

Kansas City builder F. Jeffrey Miller and two business associates were convicted on federal charges of conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering in a $5 million mortgage fraud scheme, acting U.S. Attorney Marietta Parker said Friday.

In May 2006 , the U.S. Department of Justice charged Miller, 47, of Stanley, with organizing a $25 million scheme to boost his business through conspiracy, bank fraud and money laundering.

One of the last times I visited my childhood home, before my folks moved further south in search of better fishing, I saw that Miller had built a huge mansion across the street, where there used to be a field and a pond. My guess is his current quarters are considerably smaller, say on the order of 80 square feet.

Obviously, it’s not true that all real estate agents, title companies and builders are crooks. Our real estate agent and loan broker have both been stand up folks here in Washington state. They’re quality folks who live in the community and don’t rip people off. The guy who built our house here did a pretty good job overall. And while some folks may lean Republican, the sensible ones are a little more sanguine about their ideology and are willing to grant that maybe sometimes rules have to be enforced for the greater good.

The criminality in the industry has affected the entire economy, and while it’s fashionable in some right wing quarters to throw hissy fits about a Democratic administration, the bitter truth is that this economic calamity was caused by a lack of sensible regulation and the unbridled greed of people who are no better than street criminals. Frankly they have done an amount of harm greater than all the street criminals ever could, at least in dollar amounts.

What remains to be seen is how many more of these white collar lawbreakers are brought to justice, and if the building and banking industries will ever come to their senses and realize that tolerating criminality works against the long term interests of legitimate business people.

It’s freaking awesome to have a job where you can boink an employee’s spouse or just disappear for five days without notice to break up with your paramour. Plus you can be 100% completely wrong about big issues like wars and impeachments and still keep your job!

I know, this stuff can happen anywhere. And it could be “kids” out on summer break, although the article suggests that those responsible might find themselves at least chatting with some FBI agents.

Still, this is just unacceptable.

The first incident was reported to deputies just before 8:30 am. Saturday in the 4300 block of Northeast 39th Street, when a large swastika was found scrawled on a garage door in silver spray-paint.

Within several hours deputies had four more reports.

A racial slur was discovered spray-painted on a van parked in the driveway a block away, and a swastika had been painted on the tailgate of a pickup nearby, Schanaker said.

Then, three vehicles were found vandalized in the 3900 block of Northeast 39th Street. A racial slur was written on a Chevrolet Malibu, a Cadillac and a Chevrolet Suburban. A slur against homosexuals was also written, Schanaker said.

At Scott’s house, someone painted a racist message on the driveway, and on a garbage can wrote: “(Derogatory term) get out of our hood.”

And even if it is “kids,” they learned it somewhere. That’s a pretty cold thing to do.

Brian Baird is up to his usual Brian Bairdness: From Brad Shannon at The Olympian:

H.R. 2454, also known as the American Clean Energy and Security Act, is a sweeping measure that puts a cap on carbon-fuel emissions, something the state Legislature couldn’t muster this year. H.R. 2454 sets goals for reducing emissions by 2020 and 2050, setting up a framework for a cap-and-trade system of pollution credits.

—snip—

But Baird, a Democrat from the 3rd Congressional District that takes in southwest Washington and quite a bit of logging country, said yesterday he doesn’t yet support it because of biomass-energy jobs he thinks it will thwart, as written. Baird also said he’d rather see a tax on carbon containing fuels than a cap-and-trade system, which lets companies sell off pollution credits if they meet standards and have capacity.

Baird made these comments during his stop in Olympia to check out a local economic-stimulus project:

“People dispute this, but when you read the language carefully it does what I’m going to say … It effectively prohibits use of dead and diseased trees from most federal land to be used for either renewable fuel or renewable energy standards. We have millions of acres of tinder dry, bug-infested forests in the Northwest, a 75-year backlog of forest health efforts,” Baird said.

“…Last year in our state, more CO2 went into the air from forest fires than from cars and power plants combined. If we don’t take that wood out, forest health will be impaired and forest fires will be more severe. As we speak stimulus money is being used to pay jobs in the woods to thin and remove dead trees. Do you know what they are doing with that wood? … Piling it up and burning it. Honest. Now if you’re seriously concerned about greenhouse gases you might want to turn it into wood pallets or methanol or some other thing.”

Wow, it’s interesting that Baird would bring up power plants. Why, there’s gigantic coal operation right here in WA-03! Well, there is when they aren’t laying people off after getting massive tax breaks.

Again from Shannon’s post at The Olympian:

Baird has recently won re-election with ease, and neither Doglio nor Bob Guenther, president of the Lewis-Thurston- Mason Central Labor Council, thinks Baird is in any danger by supporting the bill. On the contrary, Doglio said, “I think voting against it he could lose some of his base.”

Guenther is a member of the Gifford-Pinchot partnership that has brought business, environmental and labor interests together in a search for common ground in the national forest along the southern Cascades. Members of the group are examining H.R. 2454 to see what effect it could have on their stewardship efforts, which are designed to create jobs and create energy out of wood waste.

Look, way, way back in the day I used to run into Guenther, and he’s a good guy, so don’t get me wrong. I have nothing against him.

But it’s kind of odd nobody even mentioned the TransAlta coal operations in the context of this legislation, when it’s in Baird’s district and Guenther is a long-time labor leader in Centralia. Forest fires happen, and that’s an issue, but it’s not the same issue. The planet really doesn’t care about district politics in WA-03.