When the Building Industry Association of Washington (BIAW) spends hundreds of thousands of dollars attacking Gov. Chris Gregoire for spending too little on foster care children, you just know there’s something suspicious about the ad… suspicions easily confirmed with a modicum of factchecking.
It turns out that Mary Radcliffe, the “child advocate” at the center of the ad, is a long-time Republican Party activist, the former co-chair of the anti-affirmative action Initiative 200, and a WA delegate to the 2000 Republican National Convention, handpicked by the Bush campaign to add some color to the proceedings. Her abuse of the title “Court Appointed Special Advocate” for political purposes has repeatedly drawn legal action from the the Washington’s Court Appointed Special Advocates for Children (CASA), and, not surprising, the charges made in the ad have already been debunked as total lies.
But that hasn’t stopped the BIAW from spending its illegal funds to attack one of Gov. Gregoire’s strengths, her unmatched advocacy on behalf of children, and it hasn’t prompted the amen editorialists at the Seattle Times from expressing their moral outrage, despite their patently ridiculous call on Gov. Gregoire to pull a factual accurate ad about embryonic stem cell research, because in their view “the issue is not real.”
Watch the video for all the details.
If you want to trust a demonstrably criminal Republican politician with your tax money for the next four years, vote for Dino Rossi.
Brilliant! Thanks Goldy!
Goldy,
You should consider losing that scruffy beard. Makes you look old.
As a Self Appointed Special Advocate to uncover bullshit myself I have to say Goldy this is a remarkable piece of work that proves once again your one of the best.
The creepy ad you speak of made, let see how would Cindy McCain say it, “my blood run cold”, and I knew that it won’t pass the smell test. Fortunately for me you did the legwork and proved my intuition correct. Thanks!
I think people are currently more interested in their property taxes going up, the stock market crash, the possibility of losing their jobs, their homes, etc., than the BIAW.
“But TROLL, don’t you realize that the cause of the stock and housing market crash has its origins in the Republican blah, blah, blah …”
HAHA, beat ya to it.
I didn’t know the details, but I knew something was wrong when Rossi was airing anti-Gregoire ads attacking her for “increasing spending”, while other ads were being aired attacking her for cutting spending on children. Something sure smelled fishy.
If I were Goldy, I would contact a financial blogger, and do a Q & A with him or her. Readers could submit questions, then Goldy’s guest blogger could answer them.
Troll @ 7 –
Or he could get 3 financial bloggers, and then we could have 3 different, inconsistent answers to each question.
(What’s the old joke – if you put 4 economists in a room and ask them a question, what do you get? 5 different answers.)
:)
Nice job, Goldy – but get a better microphone, or at least set up in a room where the sound doesn’t echo.
Hey Troll, property taxes are going to go down, not up. They’re based on assessed value, and we’ve all seen what’s been happening to housing prices as the bubble collapses.
It won’t happen this year, since assessment-based taxes are usually about a year and a half behind the actual changes in assessments. But municipal and county governments are going to be squeezed big time in 2010 or so, even if the overall economy has improved by then.
Great job Goldy.
@8
I’m just saying, even on a political blog, the BIAW is probably about #89 on a list of things readers here are currently worried about. Just thought he might want to think about touching on something in the top ten.
Checkout what’s up at Orcinus.
http://dneiwert.blogspot.com/2.....illas.html
Where did Dino gets these campaign people? They are very good at what they do. I mean, sure it’s sleazy and deceitful, but it’s also artfully designed and well-planned.
12 t
It just might be that the illegal election funding by the prime backer of one of the candidates for Governor of the State of Washington just might be of interest to voters.
Who the hell is doing scheduling at KING-TV? We had “Evening Magazine” on last night and I think they ran about six anti-Gregoire attack spots back-to-back at the quarter-hour break.
Troll: What are the ten most popular concerns of voters?
Betcha Obama’s middle name isn’t one of them.
10. N in Seattle spews:
“Hey Troll, property taxes are going to go down, not up. They’re based on assessed value, and we’ve all seen what’s been happening to housing prices as the bubble collapses.”
Not entirely true good buddy.
The Tax Revenue Dollars are fixed….they are allocated to property owners based on assessed values.
If your property goes DOWN less than the average decrease, you will have a TAX INCREASE.
If your property goes DOWN more than the average decrease, you will have a TAX DECREASE.
But the Dollars Collected by State & Local Government stays the same.
Do your homework.
oh noes, goldy’s wearing his fingerless gloves. no heat again.
re 18: What’s the average decrease?
Does it occur more frequently in Republican or Democratic administrations?
Are the current decreases more ar less than average?
You are the worst spin-doctor ever.
Wow, Rossi and his buddies truly will stop at no lie, no deception. The media should be all over this story.
I remember a concept taught in sociology classes called “culture lag”. MSM seems to be a victim of this in regard to the favorable way Republicans are being treated by them. I, for one, would like to make Republicans the victims of main stream media bias.
Remember, it was only a few years ago that Democrats on such shows as ‘Meet the Press’were put on panels where they often had to speak against Republicans who were in no way civil. The Republicans shouted us down, hurled epithets, constantly lied — and were NEVER challenged by the hosts.
I remember Elizabeth Dole Screaming like some bitch fish-wife on many of these news shows.
I think it’s time for payback.
Yet nary a peep about Gregoire’s shills Ireland and Utter demanding an investigation into Rossi’s campaign. They have NOTHING!
insult-to-BHO @18…
I’m no expert on taxation and finance, but it has always been my understanding that property taxes are based on a specified rate-per-assessed-value. Are you telling me that that rate is established through a procedure where the community government predetermines the total amount of property taxes it will receive, then adds up all the assessed values, and calculates its tax rate from that analysis?
I’m not saying you’re wrong. I’m just saying that I’ve never heard of this approach to rate-setting. Got anything to back it up?
All you need to know about the Repugs’ attitude toward children is they can’t wait for them to reach age 18 so they can put them in a military uniform, put a gun in their hands, and send them to a foreign country to die for the Repugs’ twisted concept of “patriotism.” (Note, this only applies to other people’s children, not their own.)
The truly ugly images of Republicans emerging from this week’s campaign rallies show what these people are all about: Foaming-at-the-mouth savages chanting “kill! kill!” who could turn into a murderous mob at the wink of an ex-beauty contestant’s eye.
LIBERALS MUST ARM!!!
Wow – that was quite a ride on Wall Street today. At one point down by about 700 points, in the morning it went up and down by 100 to 200 points every five minutes or so. I thought it was going to close down by about 550 points, but in the last half hour or so trading brought it up – almost even for the day, only to have it end at -128 for the day.
Was it bargain-hunters closing in to make up the losses earlier in the day, or is the Treasury Dept. stepping in to buy stocks in order to avoid having the market close under the 8,000 benchmark (thereby saving John McCain from another embarrassing headline)?
Anyway, since another record was set today, I entered the closing number of 8,451.19 in my spreadsheet. That means the DJIA has lost 2,136.40 (20.18%) during the almost eight years of the Bush presidency.
That was a great video. Has anyone seen the stupid Rossi commercial where the two grossly fat women complain about paying property taxes? Apparently the money they needed to pay taxes was used up on groceries.
N in Seattle:
That’s about right. Take a fire district. They get basically 100% of their tax revenues from property taxes. Say their property tax revenues are $10,000,000 for 2008. That means for 2009, they can collect a maximum of $10,100,000, which is 101% of the previous year’s total, unless they have a public vote to exceed that 101% limit. The $10,100,000 number is not including any revenues from new construction — that’s in addition to the $10,100,000. Then the taxing district takes that total amount of money, divides it by the total AV, and comes up with the rate.
For a fire district, the maximum rate is $1.50/$1000 AV. What would theoretically happen if assessed values went down is that eventually taxing districts would bump up against their maximum rate/AV, and would not be able to collect a 101% increase, because their rates would be maxed out.
The property tax system in this state is extraordinarily complicated, and most people have zero understanding of how it works. Which is why property tax limitation initiatives largely don’t work the way people assume they will, and create more problems than they solve.
N in Seattle–
Bax nailed it.
Helps to know the law before you starting spewing shit outta yer piehole.
@12. Troll:
But what is at/near the top of voters “want to know” list is whether they’re voting for the typical white-lying politician or the typical world-class liar politician (i.e. neocon).
When Dino and his BIAW whores (Or is that the BIAW and their whore Dino?) figure everyone’s too blind and complacent to see the blatant lying within more lies in a TV ad… that’s news.
Funny thing: The Seattle Times wants me to pay them for what amounts to fish paper. While HA is free.
My Seattle Times subscription will not be renewed, and HA will get the money instead.
Political differences aside, I must say; Goldy, you are one un-attractive man. No wonder your difficulties with women. Jeez!