…for the very nice block party next to your church. It was fun.

Maybe we don’t agree on just how old the earth is, but when it comes to 90’s era Seattle grunge music cover bands, you got it covered.

…stay tuned. Until then, I want to say thank you to everyone who’s had my back since I left my campaign gig a while back. It’s been tough, especially since the gig I went back to (this one) isn’t a paying one.

So if you can chip in a few bucks, I’d be pleased as punch.

Wow, that was quick. Thanks!

Deadenders:

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said she’s “proud” of the U.S. decision to wage the Iraq war and insisted that the world is not more dangerous than it was when George W. Bush took office.

Um, which world is she talking about?

“We’re now beginning to see that perhaps it’s not so popular to be a suicide bomber. We’re beginning to see that perhaps people are questioning whether Osama Bin Laden ought to really be the face of Islam,” Rice, 53, said in an interview to be broadcast this weekend on Bloomberg Television’s “Conversations with Judy Woodruff.”

Osama bin Laden is the Tupac of terrorists. Even though he’s supposed to be dead, he keeps releasing new tracks.

And what’s the baseline of exactly how “popular” being a suicide bomber should be? For a job where the only qualification is “blowing yourself up,” you’d think it would be really, really unpopular. You know, less popular than working at the Westlake Hot Dog On A Stick.

Also, I’d be less worried about who people think is the face of Islam- bin Laden, Cat Stevens, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar- and more concerned about who they think is the face of the anti-Muslim movement.

Which, if you asked them, would be us. Yes, the same country that defended Kosovo, saving the lives of Muslims, has been successfully rebranded as “anti-Muslim.”

Is Condi proud of that?

This letter writer is Seattle passive-aggressive through and through:

Burner family’s pets not just “stuff”

While I am thankful that Darcy Burner, her family and their dog, Bruce Wayne, escaped unharmed, I was taken back by her remark: “We lost stuff. It’s just stuff” [“Screams of Burners’ son led to family escape,” Local News, July 2].

How about Charlotte, their cat, who died in the fire? I do not consider a companion animal “stuff,” and it’s unfortunate that her remark was printed.

I think or hope that she was still in shock when she said it. Indeed, if some of her possessions are “irreplaceable,” such as photos and mementos, I hope Charlotte the kitty will also be missed.

A companion animal is not an object, not “just stuff,” but a furry little friend, and part of the family.

— Claudine Erlandson, Shoreline

You know what? I’m a cat guy. Given the choice, I’d rather have a cat than a dog. But in all my years of owning, loving, and caring for cats, I know one thing to be true.

Cats are stupid little fuckers.

Seriously. They spend their entire lives not giving two shits what their owners think, only showing up for food and to sit on the heat vents. They sleep in your linen closet, crap in your house plants, destroy your toilet paper, and eat all your towels. (Well, sometimes they eat your towels.)

Whenever I read about a house fire, the article usually says “everyone got out OK, including the family dog. Sadly, the families two cats perished.” Article after article. Every fucking time.

The letter writer has her heart in the right place. I loved every cat my family ever adopted. But you know what? They ain’t human, and for 75 bucks, they’ll give you a brand new one down at the animal shelter. Yes, the cat didn’t make it. That’s sad. But the people are OK, and that’s what’s important.

I support Friends of Seattle, and so should you. I like groups that try to make civic involvement fun, and FoS does this really well.

Now that summer is here, Friends of Seattle wants you to come out and play. We’re having a Summer Meet ‘n’ Greet to say thanks and to let you know what we’re up to in ’08.

And, with Friends of Seattle working to get the Pro Parks Levy on the 2008 ballot, we’re excited to celebrate in one of our exceptional City parks.

Where: Golden Gardens Park , Shelter #2
When: Sunday, July 13th, 3:00-5:00 PM
Who: Members and non-members alike
Questions? Contact events@friendsofseattle.org

Hope to see you there!

For more info go to friendsofseattle.org

This headline is just too precious:

Suburbs aren’t a wasteland — they even have brie out here

Bless your cotton socks, sweetheart. You mean they have cheese in Bellevue? Really? Really? I would never have guessed that cheese- expensive cheese- could have made it over the I-90 bridge. Simply amazing.

Child care, not soaring fuel costs, led to my recent, brief stint telecommuting, and the experiment was rewarding from a financial, parenting and policy standpoint.

Good news: I saved a half tank of gas!

Bad news: Reports of the demise of the automobile are greatly exaggerated.

I have discovered my car, my suburban lifestyle and I can coexist.

Good for you. Do you want a medal? (And who exactly is saying the automobile is dead? Lynne doesn’t let on. From seeing the run on Prius’, my only guess is that the automobile she’s referring to is the H2 or Frank Blethen’s ride, the Porsche Cayenne.)

That’s likely to be disappointing news to many. The New York Times recently published essays from writers expressing the national angst over skyrocketing gas prices. The mood was funereal.

One was titled “Goodbye to the Great American Road Trip,” and needs no further explanation. “Ghosts of the Cul-de-sac” announced, a tad gleefully, a mass exodus from the suburbs and exurbs as people escape their cars for city living.

The difference between our area and many areas of the country is that Seattle has held up much better than lots of other markets. Big subdivisions outside D.C. are vacant, and the Las Vegas exurbs are imploding just as quickly as they were built.

Blog postings on the subject ranged from expressions of schadenfreude to something more venal. Suburbanites are stereotyped as gas guzzlers commuting to McMansions, the values of which are dropping like granite countertops. One poster predicted rising gas prices will scatter suburbanites like rodents. OK, I like cheese — particularly soft brie — but comparing us to rats? Not as bad, however, as the poster who crowed that the rise of gas prices was for commuters, “the chickens coming home to roost.”

There’s something to be said for folks living with the decisions they’ve made. You know, free markets and what not.

I get the fear and pessimism. We’re all reeling, and relief is not forthcoming. The World Petroleum Congress is meeting this week in Madrid, Spain. But the Saudis and other OPEC oil ministers are more likely to concur on the best tapas than agree to lower the price of crude oil.

Lynne’s idea of relief is cheaper gas for people who don’t want to change their behavior. Totally off the table is relief in the form of driving less. That’s Commie bullshit!

Barring a change in price, we’re going to have to change the level of demand. It has already started. Cruising is down, making the drive along West Seattle’s Alki Beach doable in less than two hours. Farther from home, driving on empty is up. AAA reports a 7 percent increase in calls from Southern California motorists running out of gas.

How are people lowering demand? By cruising less, and by being irresponsibly driving around on empty. Amazing sacrifices, America. Simply amazing. I want every one of our boys currently holed up in Tikrit and Karbala to know that we’re doing our part.

Yet, the rise-and-fall-of-the-suburbs-type prognostications march on unchallenged. But jumping on the for-sale signs littering the landscape as symbolic of an American shift to living next door to work is premature. Right now, empty houses are more about the subprime-mortgage fallout than gas mileage.

Uh, ok. Then riddle me this one, Lynne: Why are housing prices stable in transit-oriented development? I saw plenty of “For Sale: Price Reduced” signs in Kent’s East Hill, but not so many in SE Seattle, where light rail is coming in 2009.

The urge to blame someone — who better than affluent suburbanites and their cars? — is understandable, but a waste. Smart public policy will fail if its relies on emotional attempts to lure people back to the city or offer a bike for every garage.

I agree with Lynne. I’m all for guilt-trip reduction. Let’s add buses and build more rail out to the ‘burbs. Telling someone to ride Metro for the sake of the polar bears is bullshit, and will never work. People will only ditch their cars if the train gets them to work faster than driving.

Better solutions are to continue efforts belatedly launched around telecommuting, fuel-efficient vehicle standards and increasing funding for public transit.

Of course we should have seen this coming, whether we live in the city or a rural hamlet. Demand for fuel-efficient cars has resonance now, but Congress and Detroit automakers made sure we were slow getting to this point.

There are fewer American institutions that move slower than Detroit’s car industry. Toyota is eating GM’s lunch on hybrid technology, while Honda is releasing (to a few hundred handpicked customers) a car than runs on hydrogen.

Now we’ll have to dig into our collective pockets to pay for light rail, buses and additional lanes on our highways.

Uh, ok. Two out of three ain’t bad. Demand is way up on Metro and Sound Transit, that’s for sure. But more highway miles? Really? As gas prices rise steadily year after year, I wonder why we would want to invest billions in a product that’s losing it’s market share.

The need is dire. State transportation officials often present worse-case scenarios to get our attention, but one prediction is untenable at the lowest and highest ends. By 2030, the portion of Interstate 90 running through Issaquah will slow to 30 miles per hour as a rising population runs into stagnant road planning. Traffic is expected to increase from 43 percent to 72 percent in this area.

Similar predictions can be made about roadways from Mercer Street in Seattle to Route 202 on the Eastside. In the languid days of summer, it is easy to agree our problems will be eased by getting out of our cars, selling our homes for close-in condos or simply busing ourselves across Lake Washington. When the water sparkles like clear gems, as it has the last few days, I, too, am vulnerable to such fantasy.

You mean, if we do nothing for twenty years, I-90 will be jammed on the freeway through Issaquah? (Isn’t I-90 already jammed through Issaquah?) Yeah, like I trust the highway-building clowns who got us into this mess to get us out of it.

But it’s nice to read that Lynne’s thinking outside the box by maybe, just maybe, taking personal responsibility for her commute.

Then I snap out of it.

Nevermind.

The suburbs aren’t dead.

Lynne Varner 1, Strawman 0.

They’re more vibrant than ever. Technology has pushed the work-at-home concept and large employers such as Microsoft have turned the burbs into employment centers.

That must be why Microsoft hired a fleet of buses and vans to get their employees to and form work… because they’re all telecommuting. Right.

City dwellers aren’t the only ones interested in doing errands on foot. Planning for suburban communities includes retail, employment and entertainment options that operate as mini-Seattles.

Good for you. Want another medal? The Distinguished Cross for Stating The Obvious?

More creativity, less blame, can give us four-day work weeks, telecommutes and a viable school option across the street rather than across town.

Less blame, absolutely. Don’t blame me for laughing at you when you’re stuck in traffic, burning seven dollar Saudi vintage, when I’m not, all because you don’t want to change your behavior, ever.

Gas-guzzling suburbanites and sweaty bicycle-riding urbanites unite!

I prefer a policy of detente, but any move by you towards a rational, evidence-based transportation policy will be welcomed.

This is what we’re stuck with:

Despite heavy criticism, Gen. Wesley Clark is standing by his statement this weekend that Sen. John MCain’s military experience doesn’t qualify him to be commander-in-chief.

“I certainly honor his service as a prisoner of war,” Clark said of McCain on Sunday. “But he hasn’t held executive responsibility. That large squadron in the Navy that he commanded — that wasn’t a wartime squadron. He hasn’t been there and ordered the bombs to fall.”

That statement from Clark has come under withering criticism from McCain’s campaign and was rejected by Sen. Barack Obama, both of whom (along with the media) distorted Clark’s words by painting them as an attack on McCain’s military service.

Clark is a retired four star general, the former Supreme Allied Commander of NATO. If he can’t call bullshit on the lionization of Saint McCain, no one can.

Surrogates say the things candidates can’t say. That’s Clark’s job. For Obama to go out of his way to reinforce the “McCain has foreign policy experience” is political malpractice.

Obama should pick a vice president who will tell him not to do this again. That seems to be the most important criteria for VP selection at the moment.

Chuck Taylor of Crosscut:

When we launched Crosscut, my fantasy was to require full, real names of commenters. Our goal is to run a site where ideas were fair game but individuals are not, where civility would be imposed by the power of shame. We didn’t want this to turn into the island in Lord of the Flies or, worse, Slog.

Yeah, because who wants to be like SLOG, what with their huge traffic and what not?

I was once in the audience for one of those “New Media: What Does It All Mean?” things at the downtown library. Michael Hood asked the panel, “what are you doing to reach out to young readers?”

The guy from the Times was very funny: he admitted that anything the Times does to woo young folks comes off as “uncool.” Josh Feit mentioned that The Stranger does really well in this area. Chuck Taylor’s answer was, basically, “we don’t think we have to.”

I think that’s why Ted Van Dyk is Crosscut’s sex advice columnist…

I get mail from County Councilman Larry Phillips.

William-

Lately it seems that every place I go I am asked the same question: “Larry, you are running for King County Executive, aren’t you?” Whether it’s a small business owner, a Democratic precinct committee officer, a County employee, a teacher, or a doctor in a public health clinic, they all want to know if I will run for the County’s top post.

Today, they get their answer: I am announcing the formation of an exploratory committee to consider a run for King County Executive. This committee will provide me with an organized structure to not just talk with citizens, but to hear what they have to say about how King County can best serve their needs.

Running for County Executive is a big undertaking and one I do not take lightly. I have a deep respect for the incumbent, as he’s done many good things in King County, and I realize that it’s hard to move on. But 13 years in office – with an unprecedented fourth term on the horizon – is a long time. The times are changing, the problems are changing, and too often they are left unattended and without effective Executive leadership.

There are County concerns that have turned to problems and then to crises. Transportation, light rail, computer systems, animal control and now the budget. Police coverage, basic public health, jail services – you name it, it needs focused attention.

So to all of those who have asked me to run, I say, let’s see how broad a team we can build in the coming months. And once the will is there and we’re an established force to contend with, we’ll take the next steps.

Within weeks, we will launch “GoForItLarry.com” – a web site for your thoughts about why we need change and what you are willing to do about it. Go on the record, send a contribution, enlist your friends and address books, and help make the change we need.

With the new “Top Two” elections system, the opportunity presents itself even more – there’s plenty of room for two from the same party to run.

Now it’s up to the people who want new, effective leadership in the Office of King County Executive, the people who have asked me to run, and many, many more. And with your help, I will be adding to that already growing list everywhere I go.

If you have any questions, please contact Abbot Taylor at (206) 218-3108 or at GoForItLarry@mac.com. I hope to hear from you soon, and thanks for all you do.

Larry Phillips

It’s pretty clear that Ron Sims is bored in his current job.

He rarely shows up at Sound Transit board meetings, and when he does it’s to fight the expansion of light rail. When an independent consultant found animals at King County’s Animal Shelter wallowing in their own shit and piss, Sims lashed out. (When pressed by the County Council, he reversed himself.) After declaring that “the era of deficits is over”, King County faces a significant budget deficit this year. Sims isn’t entirely to blame, but for him to be proved wrong so soon is disappointing.

Ron Sims should have to defend his record during the course of a campaign. For that reason, I hope Phillips runs.

Not a problem:

Putting commuter trains on the Interstate 90 bridge will require protecting the structure against damage from stray electrical current and may require innovative ways to attach the rails to avoid damaging the span, a panel of experts told state lawmakers Wednesday.

A Sound Transit project manager said the trains would likely have to slow for a few seconds while crossing joints between the floating bridge and its approaches. And who would pay for what part of the project is still being worked out.

“This is very new to us, the idea of putting light rail on a floating bridge,” said state project manager Theresa Greco.

I think the idea of transit in general is new to our state’s Department of Highways Transportation. These guys see that center span as theirs, and they look at any project that doesn’t rely on cars or buses as suspect.

During the meeting, Rep. Judy Clibborn compared installing light rail on I-90 with The Big Dig. Really? Putting rails on a floating bridge is the same as the most ambitious public works project in American history? Making “Big Dig” comparisons is a sort of “Godwin’s Law” of transportation arguments: every project you oppose is the same as the “Big Dig.”

How can something be a “Big Dig” when we’re not even digging?

The BIAW plans to spend a shitload of cash, circumventing campaign finance laws in an attempt to open up a second front against Gov. Chris Gregoire’s re-election campaign. But don’t take it from me:

If you’ve listened to drive-time radio in recent weeks, you’ve doubtless heard an anti-Gov. Chris Gregoire radio spot sponsored by an outfit called “ChangePAC.” It’s really the BIAW in disguise.

On a June 2 report, ChangePAC reported a $245,000 donation from the BIAW, enough to more than pay for a radio campaign that to date has totaled just over $200,000.

The BIAW has since brought that number up to $500,000. That’s a half million in radio ads in June. I haven’t heard much about this from the legacy media; I know that “pointing things out” and “drawing conclusions” is icky icky blogger stuff, but when a special interest group flaunts campaign finance rules, I expect to read about it. You know, in the paper.

Yesterday I was driving back to Seattle from the Eastside. I hopped on SR-520 at north Bellevue, and immediately took my place in the line of cars waiting to cross the bridge. The freeway was at a total standstill.

Without AC, my ’88 Chevy POS was getting hotter and hotter. At the same time, I was getting more and more pissed off. I never got this pissed off when riding the commuter bus across the lake. The longer I waited in traffic, the more my mind started to wander.

Right-wingers see transit as an attempt by the “elite” to “force” people into making choices they wouldn’t otherwise make. In the Puget Sound region, our two options are bus or car (or commuter train, for some people). Since our transit system is built on buses which get stuck in traffic, there is little incentive to leave your car at home. Because of this, I’ve been “socially engineered” back into my Chevy. So it’s really the anti-transit folks who take away my choices, and limit my freedom.

We lose productivity and efficiency when we have people in hour-long backups on our freeways. The absence of real alternatives to driving takes away freedom from hardworking folks. Looking at the Sound Transit maps of East Link, I would have been 3/4 of a mile away from a train station, easily in walking distance from my Eastside starting point. Studies show that people will walk much further to a train station than they will a bus stop. From that still-only-on-paper light rail station, it would have been a scant 20 minutes to downtown Seattle.

When we spend big bucks on transit infrastructure, we increase freedom, not decrease it. And you know who understands this better than any Seattle lefty? Try a born-again culture warrior:

Various free market think tanks state that Americans love their automobiles and do not desire rail systems as an alternative. Really?

Each year Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority (WMATA), D.C.’s subway and bus system, reaches a new high in ridership. I have an employee who drove to work. He often was upset upon his arrival. He now lives less than one block from a Metrorail station. He comes to work smiling and continually points to the virtues of the Metrorail system. Metrorail carries close to 600,000 riders per day. Some are tourists but most are workers. If these riders were stranded on the streets of Washington there would be gridlock beyond comprehension.

Many of Free Congress Foundation’s visitors live in the suburbs and take Metrorail and Metrobus. They sing the praises of mass transit. Sure, Americans love their cars. But cars are only good when they are moving.

Mark Baerwaldt, creepy Belltown millionaire/Monorail supporter/Sound Transit hater weighed in on KUOW the other day with this gem:

“The relief cannot be provided by Sound Transit; it takes decades to complete their mission”

See, this is the trouble with weirdo rich guys. They spend their way into the public debate, and onto our public airwaves, into the studio of KUOW, only to give out totally bullshit information. It takes years to build new infrastructure, that’s true, but Sound Transit had had commuter trains up and going for years now. If voters pass Sound Transit 2 (if it gets to the ballot), a great many projects will be implemented within only three or so years.

Add service to existing 11 bus routes serving the north, south, and east side corridors

Start new bus route between downtown Bellevue, Overlake and Redmond

Expand the bus fleet (obviously)

Break ground on Tukwila Sounder station

Break ground on expansion of Sumner, Puyallup & Everett Sounder stations

Fund Burien park & ride expansion

Finalize agreement with BNSF to expand Sounder service between Seattle and Tacoma

* Open Link light rail between Seattle and SeaTac Airport*

* Break ground on Link from downtown Seattle to UW via Cap Hill*

* And get going on design & engineering of the LRT extensions*

* Currently funded under phase 1

Compare this to Mark’s plan, which is…

Does Mark even have a plan?

The easiest way to see if campaign management is for you is to manage a campaign. And that’s exactly what I did.

I left Horsesass.org at the end of April to manage Rep. Geoff Simpson’s re-election campaign. If you are a regular consumer of web-based news, then you know what happened. This, and then a month later, this. (It learned that in the news business, the arrest gets front page treatment while the story about the charges being dropped gets buried. Then again, I’m just another “amen blogger”, so who cares what I think, right?)

But less than a month later, I’m back here, blogging. Turns out, the tough job of campaign management probably isn’t for me, and I’m glad I found that out sooner rather than later. I feel blessed to have had the opportunity, that’s for sure.

Now, back to blogging (at least for the time being).

The Seattle Times rails against Tent City, showing stunning ignorance at the same time:

“Tent City,” which camped in Kirkland in late winter, and is in Bellevue now, is scheduled to move to Mercer Island Aug. 2. This encampment has been on the Eastside since 2004, migrating from one church or temple to the next, 100 people living rent-free in camping gear. What is the point?

[…]

As a protest, it had whatever impact it is going to have. Now it becomes tiresome. There are shelter beds. There are opportunities for work.

Itinerant tent camps are not acceptable in a modern city. We didn’t have them before the 1990s, and most other American cities don’t have them now. They look at us and wonder why we ever allowed it.

Many of the homeless folks who live at Tent City have jobs. What they don’t have is first and last month’s rent, or don’t qualify for public housing.