If you like DJ Noname, the recently s-canned midday radio dj who used to be at The End, you should check this out:

RADIO IS AWESOME TONIGHT!

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The big day is here…so excited I can hardly stand it.

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My goal is to make the oddest night to ever happen on a Seattle comedy stage! And I think I just might succeed. I sincerely hope you can come and support my maiden voyage.

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Peter Goldmark is running for Commissioner of Public Lands.

He’s a rancher, a farmer, a geneticist, and through much of his life has served the public. He served as agriculture commissioner under Gov. Mike Lowry, and on the Okanagon school board. He was a regent at Washington State University, and founded a group that helps farmers and environmentalists to work together.. He invented a species of wheat used by his neighboring farmers, and raises (what I’m told) some damn tasty grass fed beef. But to really get to know the guy, you have to know the back story:

Goldmark’s father, John, was a popular farmer and state senator in the 1950s who championed public power only to be viciously slandered as a Communist tool by a former Spokesman-Review political editor and a former legislator who had both sided with private power companies. In this fearful time of the Red Scare, John Goldmark was turned out of office and saw his life ruined.

He sued for libel in 1963 and won a huge victory against his accusers. But the stigma and whispers of “communist” played out tragically in 1985 when, on Christmas Eve, a drifter who hung around right-wing fringe groups, murdered Charles Goldmark, his wife and two children — thinking he was John Goldmark.

The savage attacks on his parents (Peter Goldmark was 17 at the time of the libel trial) and the later murder of his brother’s family may have shaped Peter Goldmark and his views of public service and politics.

If anyone has earned the chance to retire to the front porch and stay out of the public eye, it’s Peter Goldmark.

But I don’t think that wouldn’t sit right with him. That’s why he’s running for Lands Commissioner this year:

[W]e agree that we need new and better management of our state’s public forests, our shorelines, our aquatic reserves and our mineral resources. [We] agree that without sustainable management of these natural resources, we risk losing what is so special about our state. We can and must do better—it is time for a change.

I’ve spent most of my life raising wheat and cattle in the high country of Okanogan County. I have served as Director of Agriculture for the state, bred new wheat varieties and been named conservation farmer of Washington State. I will be the first Lands Commissioner to be a conservation award winning and committed manager of our lands.

I offer a new direction and positive leadership.

The politics surrounding poor people is always interesting. When it’s in someones interest to fight for them, they do. When they aren’t, they won’t. I won’t leave myself out of that. I do it, sometimes. But, I find it curious that The Times is protesting the “twenty cents for a plastic bag” because it’s bad for poor people. Via ECB:

Nickels says we need to recycle kitchen waste and stop using plastic and paper bags to help the environment. The rub is, citizens are not rewarded. A rate increase pinches an already strapped lower and middle class.[…]

Leadership should find a way to make the numbers work better. Seattle is becoming a very expensive place to live.

Poor folks are poor, not stupid. To think they can’t handle a rule change is nuts.

The Seattle Times as “crusader for the poor”… that’s funny!

I was pretty much exhausted by the end of yesterday, but here’s a little bit more…

The folks on the campaign bus are interesting people. I asked the person across the ailse from me what they did.

“I’m with the Washington Education Association.”

I asked, “Cool, what do you do with them.”

“I’m the president.”

Oh.

Other folks on the bus included union folks. Electrical workers, government employees, teachers, and firefighters. The guy I talked to for about 20 minutes about Seattle firefighters and Seattle police?? Turns out he’s the head of the WSCFF. There were a few of Gregoire’s governor staff, all of them told me over and over again that they were on vacation.

This isn’t any different from other campaigns. Dino Rossi has his cadre, his bunch of folks who follow him around.

Two of my favorite guys on the bus are these guys. I missed their names, but the fella on the right is a local leader of the association of black veterans. The Gregoire campaign has lots and lots of veterans supporting it. Even the First Gentleman, Mike Gregoire. He’s a Vietnam vet. The fellas in the picture below kept referring to me at “the main blogger man.” I tried to tell them I wasn’t, but they didn’t listen.

Here it goes down, down into my belly…

I have always found it very odd how local Republicans have never given Chris Gregoire much, if any, respect. On the blogs and elsewhere, Republicans still consider her an accidental governor, an aberration, a byproduct of the corrupt machinations in King County. They do not think she is a formidable candidate. They look at her the same way they looked at Patty Murray; someone outside the “leadership” class. But year after year, she rolled up big victories.

I don’t mean respect in the polite way. Frankly, I don’t care if the GOP plays nice. But to treat her candidacy the way Dino Rossi does, the way the GOP loseratti does, well, I don’t think it’s smart. Rossi is downright dismissive; it proves that he believes his own hype about the 2004 election. He’s surrounded by the elder statesmen of the GOP; guys who worked for Slade Gorton, the BIAW, and an assorted array of since-retired legislators. All of them coo into his ear, saying that the governorship was his all along.

I spent only a few hours on the bus, but I paid attention. Unlike Rossi, Gregoire has never had to deliver for a district; she’s good, but not great, at the retail side of things. But there’s a genuine likability there, a genuine warmth. Her economically disadvantaged upbringing has installed in her a mettle, a sense that you have to be strong inside and out to get things done. Rossi may be the salesman, but Gregoire is the sales manager. Rossi is the sizzle, Gregoire is the steak.

The GOP is going to come after her on state spending, specifically, on the 33% increase. (Read more about that below, in Goldy’s post.) While Rossi makes the intellectual argument, Gregoire will talk about what her budget does:

More kids with health care.

More resources for education for our people.

Protecting our environment.

Governor Gregoire doesn’t invest in these things because of how they pencil out on the page. She invests in these things because that’s the kind of person she is. And I think that’s the person Washington voters will re-elect in November.

The sandwich chain, not the underground train. And it has wifi.

There wasn’t any internets at the event at Zones, but good lord, Ron Sims was off his ass good. After he’s done with politics, he should get his own TV show.

Turns out Zones is the biggest minority-owned business in Washington state. They have 700 employees, up from 550+ not too long ago. They want to DOUBLE in size. When right wingers say that the Gov is running business out of town, I have to ask: which ones?

Rep. Dicks made it clear that he thinks Gregoire is one of, if not the best, Gov. since Rossellini.

During her speech, Gregoire listed several accomplishments, some of which you think wouldn’t excite a room full of liberals. More prison space, property tax lids, that kind of thing. But at least Gregoire is consistent: she’s committed to following the will of the voters. That goes for property taxes, but also teacher pay and class size initiatives. (The last two, Rossi’s 2003 budget didn’t fund.)

This laptop is taking some getting used to. My elbows hurts. More later, I promise.

The nice thing about being a Democratic governor in Washington state is that you have several congressmen, many of them in safe seats, who have your back when you run for re-election. (Unfortunatly for Rossi, all he has is the BIAW and Jay Buhner.)

Riding the bus with the Gov today is Rep. Norm Dicks. He’s an Abrams tank of a man. Dicks is the perfect wartime consiglierie.

If you want to watch the kick-off online, check out the live feed here.

Turns out, Chris Gregoire’s mother was a single mom who worked at the local cafe, getting up early everyday to bake pies. At the start of every campaign, Gregoire returns to her hometown of Auburn, WA and visits the Rainbow Cafe. I’ve never been, but I like the small town dinners a lot. Since my family didn’t always have lots of money for expensive vacations, my dad and my sis and I would go on roadtrips around the state. The local diners were some of the highlights. OLne of my favorites? A dusty little joint in Washtucna.

Every politician should have a “Rainbow Cafe”.

First off, this is the nicest bus I’ve ever been on. Which isn’t saying much. Well, after the John Madden Cruiser, how many other “really nice” buses are there?

Somebody noticed my laptop, and just yelled at me.

“It’s about time we started kicking Dino Rossi’s ass.”

We’re underway…

I’ll be riding the Gregoire campaign bus tomorrow, reporting from stops along the way (wifi willing).

The first event starts at 10:15 AM in Auburn with another later in Tacoma. The bus then continues to Vancouver (without me, though.)

Later that evening I’ll be at Peter Goldmark’s campaign kick-off at the Olympic Sculpture Park. He’s running for commissioner of public lands. Special guest is Montana Governor Brian Schweitzer.

Seattle Times editorial, titled “Snohomish County transit agency’s double-decker buses a success”:

The double-decked buses are proving to be practical, too. They can carry more passengers than an articulated bus, and can operate in worse weather conditions. During snowstorms, for instance, Community Transit has had to stop using the bendable buses, which can jackknife.

Then again, the top-heavy double decker buses have been known to tip over:

A deadly bus crash on I-15 last week has transportation officials changing the way they do business when it comes to vehicle maintenance. Officials say one week before the accident, drivers of the double-decker bus involved in the crash complained about the left tire.

It’s on:

Gov. Chris Gregoire has signed a climate change bill that Yakima Valley legislators fear will lead to mandates on agriculture to reduce greenhouse gases under the Growth Management Act.

If we waited until we got the “thumbs up” from “Yakima Valley legislators,” we would be waiting a long, long time.

Rep. Judy Warnick, R-Moses Lake, had asked Gregoire to veto the second section of the bill that requires the Department of Community, Trade and Economic Development to come up with methods on how counties and cities can respond to climate change, including how vehicle emissions can be reduced.

Warnick and other rural legislators worry that the state will tell agricultural communities how far trucks and tractors can travel.

The agriculture business just wants the government to stay the heck out of their bidness! (Except when they want the government to build them a multi-billion dollar reservoir. Then they’re OK with government.)

Gregoire on Tuesday vetoed other sections of the bill for technical reasons. In her partial veto message, the governor said opponents misunderstand the legislation.

“In my view, this section of the bill does not create a new mandate for local governments, and does not provide grounds for new litigation under the Growth Management Act,” she said in a statement.

She said the legislation “appropriately recognizes the differences between our urban and rural settings.”

As a westsider, I really don’t care how far a hops farmer in Zillah drives his tractor. I’d much rather get folks in big cities to drive less.

The ways we fight climate change will be as varied as are the different communities of Washington. We shouldn’t mandate how rural counties fight climate change, but we should mandate that they do fight it.