The Washington Realtors PAC has taken quite an interest in the 48th Legislative District race between Republican Bret Olson and Democrat Deb Eddy, spending over $28,000 stuffing mailboxes on Olson’s behalf. One of their major campaign themes? Olson will solve the region’s traffic problems.
A recent mailer (you can see it here, front and back) features a picture of typical Eastside congestion, with the following text:
With the average commute getting longer every year, it cuts into the time we have to spend on the important things, like our families. Now, traffic is threatening our economy and our quality of life.
That’s why we ask you to vote for Bret Olson in the upcoming election. As our Representative Bret Olson will work for transportation solutions that give us more quality time with those who matter most.
Uh-huh. Only take a closer look at the picture of that Eastside traffic jam.
So… where exactly on the Eastside is Kirkwood Rd and Wilcrest Dr? Um… Houston. Texas.
Oh, and by the way, not only isn’t that freeway in Olson’s district, I’m pretty sure this isn’t Olson’s wholesome, healthy family either.
As for Olson’s “transportation solutions,” apparently they include passage of I-933, which Olson endorses, and which would lead to unregulated, unchecked suburban sprawl throughout the 48th LD and the rest of the state. Not that this would have much of a negative impact on local traffic. In Houston.
Need any more proof that a Republican these days can’t even be trusted as a dog catcher?
This sums the election up well: http://select.nytimes.com/2006.....QbSbQZb2OA
Actually, dogcatcher is a non-partisan position. And don’t think all us Repubs are for I-933. I think it’s even slightly more stupid than I-937.
Goldy, this is a new low for even you.
Let me say it slowly, “stock pho… tog… ra… phy.” Graphic designers use it all the time.
At least they didn’t STEAL a photograph like Darcy’s pals did.
I lived in that area in Houston and its worse than here. Their solution? Pave everything. That is the nessage being sent- vote for Olson and we will have horrible traffic like Houston.
That photo reminds me. Who’s steering the McMorris campaign?
Let me say it slowly, “stock pho… tog… ra… phy.”
You can say it any way you like, Mark. Really.
What a loon. ROTFLMAO!!!!
Sometimes you think to yourself, “When will their lies stop?”
And the answer comes in time. “Never.”
These days typically one pays a licensing fee to use photos from a library: the smiling young mom, the black or Asian office worker, the whatever.
But Mark raises a good question (I’ll phrase it narrowly): it is meaningless or meaningful to use pictures of traffic in some far-off place to represent traffic here to a voter?
One one hand, traffic is traffic, or traffic is as traffic does, or something. Quoth Mark Gump. On the other hand, being stuck in traffic for four hours in 100 degree heat in Los Angeles (or Houston? I’m not too familiar) is not something anyone here will have to deal with, and a picture thereof can be misleading, in a way that would benefit the senders of that mailer.
Me, I’m kinda against misleading.
Of course it’s stock photography. But the point is, Olson’s “transportation solutions” agenda is as fake as the photography in this mailer. You don’t solve our region’s transportation problems by encouraging sprawl. You just don’t.
They pick an issue that they know resonates with voters, and say Olson will fix it. They don’t tell you how, because he clearly doesn’t know how. If he did, he wouldn’t be endorseing I-933.
the golden one is right agien
great show last night bye the way goldy when are you going to go on 5 nights a week
Voter supression is live and well: http://www.dailykos.com/story/2006/11/6/1717/68014
Mark at 4: I use stock photography all the time. But I wouldn’t use an out-of-state picture to depict traffic conditions in a specific locality.
I would be suprised if there wasn’t stock photography available which is specific to this area. All you have to do is look for it. But if there wasn’t, I’d spring the $250 or so it would take to get a photographer to take some pictures. It’s not that big a deal.
But the traffic complaint is a red herring. I’ve seen politicians use it in this area, usually at the last minute, for years, after their polls show them it is a major complaint among voters. But the question is, what specifically are they going to do about it? No one brings it up early in a campaign because then they would be required to be specific. And the solution to traffic problems is… (surprise)… taxes!
But no Republican wants to be accused of proposing to raise taxes. So they just bring up the problem, promise to do “something” about it, and because it appears in the last days of the election, there is not enough time to hold them accountable for it.
The Republican plan for reducing traffic is to bring the economy to its knees, such that the only jobs that are created are low wage jobs insufficient to permit such job holders to actually own a vehicle. No vehicle ownership means less people on the road. Alternatively, of course, simply triggering more unemployment is always a good idea for traffic woes–fewer jobs means fewer commuters. You have to hand it to the Republicans: they have a plan for everything.
9 “On the other hand, being stuck in traffic for four hours in 100 degree heat in Los Angeles (or Houston? I’m not too familiar) is not something anyone here will have to deal with…”
Well, we had the 100-degree heat last summer, and if the “growth-is-everything” crowd have their way, four-hour commutes are only a matter of time.
Building more highways solves traffic problems is about like drinking lard to cure heart disease.
Sorry ’bout the clumsy typing…you should see the way I drive.
JCH,
These porn spams look like your kind of porn sites. Although I didn’t see one that said:
“http: // Rev. Haggard gets anally fisted doggie style while snorting meth on his weekly phone call the White House.com”
Geez, do you think Bush and Rove go on some weekly meth induced gay sex binge and jack each other off while on a conference call with the good Rev. Haggard while he’s being pounded by a gay male prostitute, while watching secure NSA video of Duke Cunningham being ass raped in prison, while Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan goes wife swapping, while Don Sherwood has an affair and chokes his wife, while Rep. Gibbons assaults a woman he’s been soliciting who’s not his wife, while reading emails of Mark Foley soliciting underage boys for sex, while Mayor Jim West cruises Gay chat rooms offering government jobs in exchange for Gay sex, all while Denny Hastert says the problems “have been taken care of” *wink* *wink*?
Illegal Democrat voting Mooooooooooooooooooooooslims who are not citizens will be deported back to Mooooooooooooooooooooooslimland!!!!
Daddy Love, 25% of Democrat votes in NM [Baja Norte, MX] are ILLEGAL!!!!!! Hey Illegals!!!! Border Partrol and the MinuteMen are ready!!! We will deport you and your “anchor babies”!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
JCH,
No posting under “anonymous” or any other pseudonyms after you lose our bet tomorrow.
GBS @ 18
Rep. Sherwood choked his mistress, not his wife. Can’t you liberals get anything right?
Mooooooooooooooooooooooslim terrorists for Democrats!!!! Communists for Democrats!! “Guvment” hacks on “guvment” pensions for Democrats!!! Ileeeeeeeeeegal aliens for Democrats!! Black 4th generation welfare hacks for Democrats!!!! [Have I missed any Democrat “victims” group???]
When the Dems use stock photo it’s worth an hour and a million dollar graphic on Faux News Channel. As usual, the righties employ situational ethics.
Geez, do you think Bush and Rove go on some weekly meth induced gay sex binge and jack each other off while on a conference call with the good Rev. Haggard while he’s being pounded by a gay male prostitute, while watching secure NSA video of Duke Cunningham being ass raped in prison, while Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan goes wife swapping, while Don Sherwood has an affair and chokes his wife, while Rep. Gibbons assaults a woman he’s been soliciting who’s not his wife, while reading emails of Mark Foley soliciting underage boys for sex, while Mayor Jim West cruises Gay chat rooms offering government jobs in exchange for Gay sex, all while Denny Hastert says the problems “have been taken care of” *wink* *wink*?
Commentby GBS [………Run on sentence much? Unreadable, even for an E3.]
Geez, do you think Bush and Rove go on some weekly meth induced gay sex binge and jack each other off while on a conference call with the good Rev. Haggard while he’s being pounded by a gay male prostitute, while watching secure NSA video of Duke Cunningham being ass raped in prison, while Republican Senate candidate Jack Ryan goes wife swapping, while Don Sherwood has an affair and chokes his wife, while Rep. Gibbons assaults a woman he’s been soliciting who’s not his wife, while reading emails of Mark Foley soliciting underage boys for sex, while Mayor Jim West cruises Gay chat rooms offering government jobs in exchange for Gay sex, all while Denny Hastert says the problems “have been taken care of” *wink* *wink*?
Commentby GBS [………Run on sentence much? Unreadable, even for an E3.]
Question: Who would Moooooooooooooooooooooslim terrorist Osama bin Laden vote for??? [ANS: Straight Democrat!!!!!]
Today is probably a good day for politicians to talk about traffic problems. It took me two and a half hours to commute from Everett to Bellevue this morning, due to a fatal accident on I-405 Southbound, plus the rain. I left at 5:50 a.m., arrived at work in Bellevue at 8:20 a.m.
But I’m smart enough not to fall for the ruses of any politician who just wants to bring up the issue and say that’s a reason for voting for them. Republicans have been the biggest obstacle to solving the traffic problems in the Puget Sound Area since I moved here in 1979.
For all you dumb ass neocons who believe America has the best health care — think again. Here’s an interesting article about AMERICANS going overseas to get medical attention. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15513596/
Thanks for royally fucking up America in your 6 year reign, it’ll be a while before the Democrats can fix you messes again.
Osama allways votes straight repug lickan buttnutz
By the way, that was a good catch by the other blogger on the McMorris photo. She’s in a business suit sitting on a tractor (bad enough visual for Eastern Washington), but in the bottom corner you can see another hand, that is holding the steering wheel for her. She can’t sit on a non-moving tractor without help?
PL @ 21:
It’s Clinton’s fault!!!
Funny how Republicans try (very hard) to identify Democrats with Osama Bin Laden.
Bush and Osama need each other. Osama put out his video right before the last 2004 election debate in order to help Bush get re-elected. Without Bush, Osama couldn’t get the recruits and funds he needs to become the “leader of the Muslim world” that he desires to be. Without Osama, Bush would have been a one-term President, and his only hope for staying in power has been to continue to stoke fear of Osama in order to galvanize the Republican vote.
Without Bush, Osama will (eventually) shrink back to obscurity. Without Osama, Bush would no longer have any credible reason for staying in power.
For all you dumb ass neocons who believe America has the best health care – think again. Here’s an interesting article about AMERICANS going overseas to get medical attention. http://msnbc.msn.com/id/15513596/
Thanks for royally fucking up America in your 6 year reign, it’ll be a while before the Democrats can fix you messes again.
Commentby GBS [……..Right…….That’s why black Americans are swimming for Communist Cuba to get great health care!!!]
“Question: Who would Moooooooooooooooooooooslim terrorist Osama bin Laden vote for??? [ANS: Straight Democrat!!!!!]
Commentby JCH [PA]— 11/6/06@ 4:28 pm”
Why would he vote against his own best interest. I mean, he murdered nearly 3,000 Amrericans on 9/11, drained billions of dollars out of our economy and no ONE, absolutely NO ONE is hunting him.
Why would he vote for a Democrat who will KILL him? After all, history proves the only President of the United States of America who even TRIED to kill OBL was Bill Clinton. Didn’t you watch that interview with Wallace on Faux News?
Clinton tried and failed, but at least he TRIED. You’re guy has given OBL a free pass to live in Pakistan for 5 years.
So, why do you think he’d vote straight Dem? Oh, because you can relate to voting against your own best interest, too, because you vote Republcian. Somehow, JCH, I don’t think OBL is a dumb as you are and the voting block of Republicans.
Republicans support a free OBL. I can hear the chants now at the RNC convention in ’08 Bush Akbar, Bush Akbar.
Bush and the Republicans are al Qeada’s allies in the War On Terror!
You’re either with the Republicans and the terrorists, or you’re with America and the Democrats.
Go back and check out the previous post, for the link to the article where Karl Rove and George Bush were ticked of that the GOP candidate for Florida Governor didn’t appear at their rally in Pensacola to introduce Bush to the audience.
To them, its not about the GOP candidates. It’s about Bush and Rove. They feel that regardless of whatever problems the candidate is facing in his home state, that he should drop everything to attend a rally which tries to make “lame duck” Bush appear relevant and important. Even if Pensacola is already Republican territory, and its a tremendous waste of time for the GOP candidate to waste time there. Even if an appearance with Bush actually hurts the candidate in the rest of the state.
It’s “all about them”.
GBS @ 36
Sadly, you’re correct. For Islamic terrorists, George Bush and his supporters (especially the pathetic asskissers like JCH) are the gift that just keeps giving. I actually don’t think Bush intends to support the terrorists; he’s just incapable of recognizing the consequences of his bluster and blather. But, maybe just maybe, tomorrow we take the first step toward getting some adults back into the foreign policy mix.
Bush is too dim a bulb to realize that he is being manipulated by Bin Laden and his ilk. Bush has predictable buttons, you push one, and you get the desired reaction. They’ve been trying for years to convince Muslims that the U.S. hated Muslims and wanted to kill them, but only a few believed them. Now Bush has proved them correct, and idiots like Bush, Rumsfield, and Cheney don’t have the smarts to remove their support by removing their propoganda tools (i.e., Bush, Cheney, Rumsfield). Rove probably does realize it, he’s just happy to have another election issue.
rhp
Nice way to put it–“Bush has predictable buttons.” He’s like a temperamental 6 year-old in that regard. In the Middle East, no one forgets and no one forgives. Bush and Co. come in and think solving the problems there is like rounding up cattle. Unfortunately, no matter what happens, nothing changes their course, even when the whole world sees that what needs rounding up is cats, not cattle. Except, maybe, waterboarding. Maybe if we waterboarded Cheney and Rove, you know, just gave them a little “dunking”, they’d start to change course.
“The Washington Realtors PAC has taken quite an interest in the 48th Legislative District race between Republican Bret Olson and Democrat Deb Eddy, spending over $28,000 stuffing mailboxes on Olson’s behalf.”
And here we have one of the best arguments against allowing trade organizations to use mandatory dues for political advocacy. Yes, my dues and the extra $100.00 they required me to pay this year are paying for this mailing.
Oh, well. At least we managed to prevent the PAC from giving blanket endorsements to the entire Republican slate. No endorsement on the Senate campaign, and a number of Democrats were actually endorsed.
I know that the right wing makes the same argument about labor unions using dues money to support Democrats, but have you noticed that they say very little about trade organizations using member dues for the same thing?
Goldy explain to me how 933 will have any effect either way. More people equals more traffic no matter were they live. I fact most rural people make their living at their home which makes your statement total BULLSHIT!
No human has seen more benefit from 9.11 than Bush. No party has seen more benefit from 9.11 than the GOP and no real American is buying the GOP lie anymore. Bye Bye traitors!
@ 39
“Bush and Co. come in and think solving the problems there is like rounding up cattle.”
Well, that explains the problem! Bush is all hat, no cattle, so WTF would he know about rounding up cattle?
Commentby Jimbo— 11/6/06@ 7:13 pm
“More people equals more traffic no matter were they live. I fact most rural people make their living at their home which makes your statement total BULLSHIT!”
Ok, I’m really not sure how your statement makes the least bit of sense.
First, a bit of data about your contention that rural people make their living at home would be nice. I’m sure that all the people I know that live in the rural areas of the Key Peninsula and South Kitsap would be interested in how they can make their living at home. (ANYTHING to avoid having to cross the Purdy Bridge at rush hour.)
Next, as 933 doesn’t protect rural areas from anything except staying rural, how do you figure that its passage would not cause additional traffic problems? If you want to see what uncontrolled growth looks like, check out Puyallup. I suggest Meridian Ave about 5 PM. Bring a snack, as you’ll be there for a while.
When growth is controlled and contained in urban areas, there is a certain amount of efficiency built in. Folks can walk to the store and take transit to work.
Suburban sprawl puts a lot of folks in cars, often alone.
One point I will give you. I don’t currently live in an urban area. While my office is only about a mile from my home, I do live in a semi-rural area. Many folks do not want to live in urban settings.
But… Look again at Puyallup. That area used to be semi-rural as well. Then the farms were sold and the developers put houses on 5000 square foot lots, with streets so narrow that the local fire department has trouble getting full size fire engines into the area.
People that used to live in a quiet, semi-rural area are now finding themselves in the middle of suburban sprawl.
They changed the rules so that people can’t do that any more, but if 933 makes it through, those rules go away, or we get to pay developers because they can no longer build fire-trap neighborhoods that overwhelm the local road system.
Farms to developments will happen 933 or no 933. The ones with the money do what they want, examples Snoqualmie Ridge and Redmond Ridge. Traffic concurrency was altered to the points these developments could be done. 933 only go’s back to 1996, most zoning laws were in place at that time. There will be no gravel pits, no strip malls, no massive development on farms. Read the full initiative and quit pulling parts of sentences out of it. That has been the whole no on 933 tactic. BTW did you know the guy harvesting the barley (yes barley) was not on his own farm? He gets paid $1,000 an acre to grow grass for the Nature Conservancy.
“933 only go’s(SIC) back to 1996”
Not necessarily true. If passed, this claim could, and most likely would, be litigated. Read the damnned thing yourself.
Commentby Jimbo— 11/6/06@ 9:41 pm
“Farms to developments will happen 933 or no 933. The ones with the money do what they want, examples Snoqualmie Ridge and Redmond Ridge.”
So, we should just go ahead and remove the controls that we have enacted? We’ve actually been pretty successful around here at controlling growth. While there is still development, there are controls in place to ensure that the roads and water availability is sufficient for that development.
“Traffic concurrency was altered to the points these developments could be done. 933 only go’s back to 1996, most zoning laws were in place at that time.”
Many of the rules here in Pierce county were enacted after 1996. The entire city zoning code for the city of Lakewood was enacted after 1996. Many of the density and zoning rules for Pierce, Kitsap and Mason Counties were enacted after 1996. Try to remember that King County is not the entire state.
“There will be no gravel pits, no strip malls, no massive development on farms. Read the full initiative and quit pulling parts of sentences out of it. That has been the whole no on 933 tactic.”
There have been new rules put in place since 1996 to prevent gravel mining along the Hood Canal. There have been new rules put in place since 1996 to prevent massive development on the Key Peninsula, where the infrastructure and water supply is inadequate for that type of development. There have been environmental rules put in place since 1996 in both Kitsap and Pierce Counties.
The backers of 933 are counting on the fact that most of the people voting are either property owners (that would like to be able to subdivide larger lots for development) or are city dwellers that really don’t understand what this would mean to the rural and semi-rural areas, and do not realize that many of the zoning laws out here have only been passed in the last few years. Before that, nobody thought that anyone would ever want to turn the Kitsap Peninsula into a giant suburb.
Yes, King and Snohomish counties have had rather rigid zoning laws in effect for many years. Out here, they’ve always been pretty loose, until we started to see a need to control growth.
Seattle is not the entire state of Washington.
And I really don’t care what that farmer was growing, unless it was the kind of grass that they arrest people for smoking.
Having lived in Houston, I know the exact intersection where that sign is. It was the exit for where I lived. And you know what’s happening at that intersection?
Houston has decided to widen I-10, the traffic jam depicted. It will be, and I shit you not, eleven lanes each direction on the freeway itself. Add to that service and feeder roads. See those overpasses? They’re to and from the Sam Houston Tollway, one of many tollways built recently at great expense. Theoretically, the toll would keep the traffic moderate, but that’s not how it’s worked out. The photographer is stuck in a traffic jam because of traffic exiting the tollway. The traffic is stacked up on the tollway, too.
Basically, this is the *after* picture of solutions to traffic problems that didn’t solve anything, and in fact made the whole thing worse. You should have seen it *before!* Houston’s solution is to put eight more lanes per direction.
Hopefully, these are not the kinds of solutions Olson has in mind for the east side.