Well, the big news apparently is that Gov. Gregoire will be making a “surprise” visit to WA national guard units in Iraq. Which I suppose would have been big news if her staff had not allowed speculation of something bigger to get out of hand yesterday evening.
Big sigh of relief from local Dems fearing the turmoil of a Gregoire appointment.
I’m glad she is going to visit them, they need some good thoughts from home.
Drudge Says Coulter Banned By NBC
Matt Drudge reports that NBC has banned Ann Coulter “for life” from its network. Drudge is full of shit, so it’s probably not true, but wouldn’t it be fun if it is? I mean, Coulter needs to go away, and the best place for her to go is a Florida jail for voter registration fraud.
Goldy–
Your vivid imagination of grandeur kinda got away from you…again.
Would be a hard sell for Commerce Sec….what with the $6 BILLION Deficit she created by overspending. And of course the $7 BILLION underfunded State Retirement Fund.
BTW…where is the Retirement Fund Annual Report for the 6/30/08 year-end???
Over 6 months after year-end….
I guess they are hoping the Market will “take off” and waiting to deliver the bad news, huh?
Republican Crook # 09-0027489654-02
We all know how frugal GOPers are with taxpayer money, right?*
Bush’s useless Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, who also is a GOP ex-governor and ex-senator from the wingnut province of Ida-fucking-ho, will be leaving behind a $235,000 washroom when he vacates his office this month. Paid for by us, of course!
That’s right, he spent TWO HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS of our hard-earned tax dollars on a fucking loo!!! Yet another disgusting example (of many) of GOPers going apeshit when they get their hands on your money.
Just think … our GOPer trolls bitch about spending taxes on public schools and highways and food stamps … !!! I got a feeling they’ll have some ‘splaining to do to Jesus …
* Keyboard dripping with sarcasm — this is, of course, a snide joke.
I really don’t think Gregoire could handle the “vetting” process Goldy.
Her abysmal record as AG would also be fair game…including her “blame the employee” game on missing the deadline that cost us millions.
Remember??
Gregoire is a reaaaaaal drama queen.
Why would a visit to Iraq be TOP SECRET??
She goes now that we are winning the war and it’s nice & safe.
What a coward.
@3 What deficit? In 16 years of elected public service, Gov. Gregoire has never submitted an unbalanced budget or presided over a deficit. She did, however, win a $4.2 billion tobacco settlement for the taxpayers of Washington State. And what did your organ grinder monkey do in the other Washington? He put the economy in the toilet and spent $700 billion of taxpayer money to bail out Wall Street and banks, that’s what! And you want to lecture us about fiscal rectitude? Even your goats are laughing at that one!!!
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR !!!!!!
P.S., I’m still getting my pension checks, the state hasn’t missed any payments, and neither has Social Security. Thank God my old-age income comes from government instead of Republican-owned banks!
@6 Speaking of cowards, when are you going to visit our troops in Iraq and Afghanistan? I understand that female boats in Afghanistan have to wear burkhas, so you have to take them sight-unseen there, but that shouldn’t be a big problem for you, Cynical. Just turn off the lights.
Rog–
I’ll go when you go.
My point was Gregoire didn’t go when the troops most needed her support…she waited until they did their jobs.
Team Obama is showing itself to be a bunch of smooth-talking morons:
1) Bill Richardson—not properly vetted
2) Eric Holder—a walking time bomb
3) Leon Panetta–a 70 year-old with ZERO intelligence experience at a very critical time in our history.
4) Blago and the Gang
5) Burris and the Gang
I thought we were PROMISED a more professional, less circus atmosphere??
Obama is already losing capital and people are questioning his judgment…including many in his own PARTY!!
I see this 3-ring circus before Obama is even sworn in as a precursor of boneheaded things to come.
“That’s right, he spent TWO HUNDRED THIRTY FIVE THOUSAND DOLLARS of our hard-earned tax dollars on a fucking loo!!!”
Each and every one of us should go to our Nation’s Capital and demand the opportunity to make personal use of this vital public resource!
In fact, let’s take the people the cops pick up for pissing in the alleys downtown and fly them off to Foggy Bottom to relieve themselves in surroundings that Mr. Kempthorne felt he richly deserved for his “public service” granting McDonald’s concessions in national parks and stocking the visitor centers’ bookshelves with creationist nonsense.
Can’t you just see Rossi, McKenna, and McCabe sitting at a bar together crying into their beers? (snicker)
Cynical you idiot.
“vivid imagination of grandeur” Oh I don’t think so. In fact the job was too small to begin with.
If our Governor were to depart for an appointment it would be at least for an appointment to the US Supreme Court.
@9 I already went. Whatsamatter, isn’t my Army service in Nam enough for ya? Hey Cynical, how do you fuck a goat in a burkha? How do you tell the heinie from the head when it’s swathed in a burkha? Do you have to lift it up and peek underneath?
Wow, I was hoping that she was going to be allowed into the Obama administration. She could do to the rest of the country what she has done for the Indian tribes of Washington.
Whitey would be buying all of his energy and water from us! This includes all of you especially those that wait every month for a WA state pension.
13 C’mon, Roger…don’t ask Cyn such difficult questions. It’ll make his head explode.
He’s probably scared of real goats. Just has a lot of pictures.
Getting back to…um, the original subject of this thread, this latest claim doesn’t seem to quite pass the sniff test.
Why our governor would be traipsing off to the other side of the world to say hello to the troops when there are hefty budget decisions to be made in both Washingtons doesn’t make sense–and in spite of the wingnuts’ hallucinatory ravings, Gregoire has always impressed me as unusually sensible for a politician.
@14 I’ve never had to wait for my state pension. It’s arrived like clockwork for over 5 years now. And it’s always the full amount I was promised. Btw, how’s your 401(k) doing? Wall Street treating you okay? (snicker)
@15 I’m of opinion that his head exploded some time ago and what you see now is the splatter.
As we take total control of this state maybe one the the first things we will do is eliminate or reduce our pension costs. Especially for workers who supposedly retired in their 50s.
Guys you got it wrong. Seattle gets beaten around the head for expensive toilets for homeless people but 235 grand for a potty for Dirk and his lobbyist office guests is a relative bargain.
You gotta put it all in perspective.
Dear Roger Rabbit,
Could you please, just once, refrain from immediately going off-topic on a non-“open thread” post? I love ya, man, but it sets a bad example that the wingnut trolls are only too happy to follow.
N@21: Pelletizer can’t help it. Dumb bunny has diarrhea of da paws and with a small “rabbit” brain, he can’t wait for the next open thread. He sees it he has to post it or his oxygen starved brain cell explodes.
Here’s a virtual oxygen tank for you Pelletizer. Shhhhhhhhsssssssssss as the O2 escapes…
Besides N, he sets our precedent every day for open thread season…
I think this sums it up from the blue city Bellevue.
Don’t read this yelling loser boy. It will give you a headache.
I think this opening paragraph sums it up.
“It is astonishing that Washington state unions are suing Governor Gregoire for suspending salary increases while thousands of private sector workers are being laid off, receiving no salary raises and having their 401(k) matches set aside, not to mention a huge impending deficit for the state budget. It seems that unions spend more time ungratefully strangling their employers while attempting to myopically serve their members.”
I was hoping she would get the fuck out of here and stop ruining our state and our party.
She is fucking terrible.
The article Pudwax links to is in itself a crock. A more reasonable mind might come to the conclusion that union representation might have benefitted a lot of workers who are now getting the consequences of eight years of government-promoted managerial malfeasance shoved up their grommets. The contention that “operating managers” prevent budgetary “mistakes with “dashboards” and such is laughable. What such tools were employed by the executives of all those banks that went pfffft?
On the other hand, that page links to another piece by John Carlson which presents a more logical analysis. Gregoire, and I suspect a legion of other state and local government leaders, might have done a better job of anticipating that the Bush-era illusion of prosperity was going to evaporate sooner or later.
FartyArt with Gaseous Brains:
Are you saying these two events didn’t happen?
“During her first term she immediately dished out billions of dollars to government employees (key voting constituency) and apparently made Washington the first state in the country to give Indian nations a free pass on sharing gambling revenues with the state, an amount estimated to be over $100 million a year.”
Please tell us…
Wait a minute…, your pal in minute mind power, yelling loser boy, will claim I’m giving you an order.
And… I didn’t use the John Carlson link because the narrow minded leftist pinheads would scream and shout over it. Butt… now that you used it, that argument will be moot.
Thanks FartyArt.
Oops… gotta add dis now… LMAO
24. Andrew spews:
Andrew, you have an ability to get right down to the bottom-line. Congrats on your succinct analysis and conclusion!
Cynical,
Do you remember Andrew saying this before November 4, 2008?
Nope..
But even a LEFTIST PINHEADED KLOWN can have moments of reality-based thinking.
Andrew just proved it!
It’s interested that the Atheist Progressive Krowd was drooling all over Gregoire & Obama pre-Election.
Now they are already pissed off at both about something!
Like I’ve always said, the main point for the KLOWNS is to be perpetually pissed off!
Being joyful and appreciative…they cannot compute.
They have immense anger inside at anyone more successful than they are….which is pretty much everybody with a brain and some sack to invest & take risks.
No shit.
@19 Washington taxpayers don’t pay a penny for state workers’ pensions. State workers pay for their own pensions through payroll deductions. The employing agencies make employer contributions into the pension system, but this is considered part of the workers’ compensation. The rest of the pension system’s money comes from investment returns on the money paid in by workers and their employers. There is no taxpayer contribution whatsoever to the pension system, and never has been. Nor do taxpayers pay for retired state workers’ health insurance. Retirees pay for it themselves, and it currently costs about $950 a month for a couple, which is comparable to what private sector retirees pay.
@21 I suppose reasonable minds could differ on what’s relevant to the topic and what isn’t, but personally, I saw a connection between Gregoire visiting our troops in Iraq and Cynical fucking goats in burkhas. It’s all part of the same foreign policy.
@24 Gregoire is fine. It’s you who’s fucking terrible. Use your head, man! She’s visiting our troops in Iraq, and you’re not. Get it?
@26 Puddy, Gregoire didn’t “dish out” billions of dollars to [state] employees. No employer, including the state, gives money to employees from the goodness of its heart. You have to pay people or they won’t work for you. I realize this is a difficult concept for Republicans to understand, who would reinstate slavery if they could get away with it. But slavery has been abolished, and those state employees hadn’t received a COLA in the previous two budget cycles, and you can’t expect to retain employees when your salary schedule is already 25% to 30% below the salary survey and they have to go 6 years without an inflation adjustment. It just doesn’t work that way, puddy. Underpaying your work force costs you in high turnover, higher recruitment and training costs, and higher error rates, not to mention poorer quality service to the public. Locke neglected state employees and there was a lot of catching up to do when Gregoire took office. Sorry, puddy, but trying to paint these pay raises as some sort of reckless spending ain’t gonna cut it, buddy.
The Carlson/wingnut bullshit about the tribal gaming agreement might sell to people who don’t know what’s going on, but people informed about this issue know perfectly well the Republican complaints are a crock. Let’s get a few things straight here. First off, Republicans are racist Indian-haters. Secondly, Republicans want wide-open gambling in Washington, but they also want all the casinos, cardrooms, and pulltabs to benefit white guys who vote Republican. Finally, the Republican Indian-haters never mention the fact that Native Americans are by far the poorest demographic group in the U.S. and the tribal gaming revenues provide jobs, education, and health care to tribal members.
Gregoire traded away the state’s share of tribal gambling income for the tribes’ agreement to limit the expansion of tribal gambling in our state, especially with regard to slot machines. It’s that simple. And virtually everyone involved in the issue, including Republican legislators, agree that it was the right move. The state can’t regulate tribal gaming because it’s under exclusive federal jurisdiction. The tribes voluntarily gave up thousands of new slot machines in exchange for the state giving up a few hundred million dollars of revenue. Given the destructive effect gambling has on individuals and communities, it was a good deal for the citizens of our state. Any other decision would have been irresponsible, and a Republican governor probably would have made the same deal.
Naturally, Republican liars like Dino Rossi and John Carlson attempted to create a false link between the tribal gambling agreement and tribal campaign donations to Gregoire. There is no such connection. Native Americans are U.S. and Washington citizens, and have as much right to donate to candidates and political causes as you do. The fact they made campaign donations to Cantwell, Gregoire, and other Democrats is not at all surprising in light of the Republicans’ anti-Indian attitudes and policies. Maybe if Republicans didn’t hate Indians and shit on them (and shoot at them) every chance they get, the tribes might donate to Republicans, too. Try treating them like human beings for a change and see what happens. Who knows, it might work! But as long as Republicans continue to bad-mouth Indians and work against Indian interests, you kinda have to expect them to support your opponents. This has nothing to do with the gambling agreement. Republicans have hated Indians for at least the last century, and Indians were supporting Democrats in this state long before Indian casinos appeared on the scene. To portray these campaign donations as Gregoire taking a bribe from the Indians is just plain bullshit.
The Republicans who peddle this bullshit must think the public is dumb or gullible, or both. And maybe some are. But the majority of voters didn’t buy it. The Indian bullshit, like the sex offender bullshit, didn’t save your sorry asses in November, did it?
So Mr Rabbit if the money you are receivng is already yours than why are you bragging that the state has never missed a payment in 5 years. Look at what is beginning to happen in California. People that are owed money from the state are going to get IOUs. The same thing is going to happen in this state and all the 52 year old retirees will have to go out and get a real job.
If the money really is yours than how about you call up Gregorie and ask for a lump sum payment. If they can do it for lottery winners they should be able to do it for all the hard working state employees. HA HA!
Rog is a compulsive liar Susan…he cannot help himself, he’s an attorney you know.
Mr Cynical #36
That explains a lot. If he is a retired attorney that worked for the state, can I assume that he worked for Attorney General Gregoire. If so, was he the assistant who failed to file the legal response which cost the taxpayers $100 million.
WOW – I had to weigh in on this thread. Just a regular joe (GOPer). I sense a lot of passion in your comments, but I am turned off by these generalizations: “the Republicans’ anti-Indian attitudes”…”Republicans have hated Indians”…etc. These are arguments of an alarmist not a rational intellect. I gather that you are a bit of a pompus ass that needs to be educated about the virtue of humility. Only knuckle heads lump groups into their arguments, you do not represent me, my co-workers or the people I associate with. By the way, my Commander visited me this week, checked on my welfare, gave words of encouragement and asked how my family was coping…even though our views about how to “suck the egg” differ. She walked the line as any respected leader should do when her troops are in the fight. Don’t worry about our future, we will work it out without you…just like you did back in the day. Move on.