I was accused of pouring it on a little thick in my last post about FoS. Truth be told, when I hear about folks doing what they can to make the city a better place, I just get weak in the knees. Call it post-Monorail syndrome, but I feel like digging in again. I think that’s where the passion about Seattle’s waterfront comes from. As a callow youth, if we really decide to put another freeway on the waterfront, I’ll have to live with the god awful mistake for longer than most of you. I got skin in the game.
In short, the FoS event was a smash. The room was packed. Lots of people: electeds, activists, hacks, and two bloggers. The crowd was quite youthful compared to most political events I’ve been to.
I don’t know if I’ll be an active part of this group. I don’t like to hitch my wagon to just anything. (Exception: Mike Lowry for Commissioner of Public Lands in ’00. Forgive me!) Besides, it’s not all “viaduct”. I want to see the new streetcar integrated into downtown. I want to see better parks downtown, even if that means getting tough on the homeless folks who’ve taken them over. I want to see the city make a greater effort to facilitate affordable housing. And more cops… way, way, WAY more cops on the beat.
If the coming Viaduct vote goes against me (My vote? No on Rebuild, No on Tunnel), and Seattle residents see fit to approve another freeway, so be it. I don’t have any kids, so I’m not too tied down. I can always move to a city that won’t build a freeway on it’s waterfront. You know… like Milwaukee!
We are also for no-no on 3/13. Pulverize the current v-duct, run water taxis back-n-forth to West Seattle every five minutes. Solved.
Voice of Chalk Scratching wrote in his thread heading: “means getting tough on the homeless folks who’ve taken them over.”
And how do you propose that Scratchy Voice? Why do libtards make proposals without describing how they would implement the remedy?
Where is the Moonbat! “compaaaaaaaaaaaassion”?
Where will you put them?
Why not suggest Greg I’ll keep my Nickles give them jobs, clean them up, put them in paid city housing until they get on their feet? Seems like a better idea than building a stupid tunnel. And Scratchy Voice you’d be spending other peoples’ money which is one of those “investments” your side loves to croon about! If you said that it would have been the fourth time since I started blogging here I agreed with you Scratchy Voice! You’d spend Seattle peeps’ money. I’m sure your Moonbat!tic friends would go for that!
How about an initiative? Join Tim Eyman. Don’t let him have all the initiative glory Voice of Chalk Scratching! The morons who wrote Initiative 957 made the Drudge Report. Make the initiative play and I’ll personally email Matt to put Voice of Chalk Scratching in his headlines!
Voice of Chalk Scratching, why not hire those poor “bums” in the park to work on the schools with seismic problems. Greg I Have Two Nickles could pay them a decent wage and they would be productive society members, paying those high King County and Seattle city taxes.
Wait… this just in… if they work on the schools with seismic problems, they would have to join a union. Then their wages would astronomically rise, Greg I’m Gonna Keep My Nickles would no longer pay them because they would bee too expensive… and guess what… they are back in the city parks again!
Another tongue-in-cheek commentary by Puddybud.
So Voice of Chalk Scratching, what is your homeless in the park solution? You made the charge so how do you solve it?
Don’t worry; I won’t hold my breath waiting for an answer and become Clueless! You won’t answer ‘cuz you are a gutless ‘burb boy who only went to Philadelphia to look at the poor people and say “I’m glad I’m not like them!”
So now it’s liberal to support even more police (have you seen the military equipment that the police have around here?) and ‘crack down’ on homeless folks?
Will – your comment about the homeless in the parks was one of the most stupid things I have heard in my entire life.
And you call yourself progressive?
And you think Seattle needs your ideas?
Be honest, how much time do you spend in ANY park for any reason?
You go to meetings, hot tubs, bath houses, bars a lot, fuck sessions, job and sleep, sit at monitor for hours, etc…..
Drift through somewhere once in a while, huh, yet you want the real users of parks to leave because ???????? Some shit head from somewhere will have a bad opinion? Tourists and condo owners want just the right kind of people in parks?????
So really stupid. Get a grip, phony baloney man.
Goldy.
The fact that you would so readily & easily think of moving indicates in fact that you don’t have a lot of ‘skin in the game’ at all.
Bye, Will.
When will you say you want to see housing for the homeless?
I have yet to be in any part of the city where there was not a strong police presence.
My out of town friends think Seattle is little like what living in an occupied zone is like because of all the cops. They call us Garrison City …..and Will says more, more.
Do you have a cop dick fetish? No concept of city budgets? or just spew gibberish. Cops and fire consume over 50 percent of the city budget, right off the top.
That beat cop is costing you many hundreds of dollars per hour- real money from real taxes, not spent other places.
Get a grip.
I do think we need more cops in downtown Seattle, but that’s not going to help until we figure out what to do with the drug arrests. A lot of the problems in Seattle parks (and downtown generally) could be solved if the drug problems were solved.
There is currently a waiting list stretching out the door for entry into drug programs, and not nearly enough room in the jails to house everyone who is arrested. As a consequence, most persons arrested for drug offenses (buying, holding, or selling) are usually back on the street within a few hours of their arrest. At this point, a lot of cops figure it’s not worth the effort, nobody else is taking it seriously.
So instead of working on the root causes of much of downtown street crime, the police are left to deal only with the consequences (shootings, stabbings, theft, etc.).
Will, and when you move, what is it you offer in the new city? Chase the homeless more, hire lots of cops to bankrupt the budget and roust the blacks, gays and homeless? And no cars, I assume.
Civic winner for Topeka, many Texas towns, and all of Alabama.
Will, you should move to Olympia.
SPD is like an airline meal: lousy, and too small.
Seattle has *way* too few cops for a city of its size. This weekend there were crack dealers on the corner of First Ave & Union! It was embarrasing enough that the Fortson Square and City Hall Park open-air drug markets have been allowed to flourish literally within sight and shouting distance of city hall, the courthouse, and the jail. It was bad enough that second and third avenues have been tweaker write-offs for decades.
When SPD can’t even keep crack dealers off the corner of SAM and the Market, they are clearly failing their core mission – Seattle, especially downtown, lives and dies by tourism.
Particle Man,
We have enough moonbats down here in the Olympia area…….
Now that so many Publicans are off the government tit, i.e. since so many GOP candidates lost their jobs in Nov, we’re likely to see more homeless right wing nutcases.
Barry @ 6
Bath houses? Do they even have those anymore?
Rebuild @ 7
Moving to Milwaukee is a joke!
Senate Democrats Investigate U.S. Attorney Firings
The Senate has opened hearings on the recent firings of 7 federal prosecutors, including John McKay in western Washington. The White House denies the firings were olitically motivated, but did not dispute media reports that a U.S. Attorney in Arkansas was removed to create a job opening for a Karl Rove aide. The fired prosecutors include the one in California who prosecuted former GOP Rep. “Duke” Cunningham on bribery and corruption charges.
It appears the administration also snuck a provision into last year’s Patriot Act authorization that allows the Attorney General to temporarily reappoint U.S. Attorneys indefinitely without Senate confirmation. DOH says it will “strongly oppose” efforts by Democrats to remove the provison.
Playing politics with federal law enforcement — what else could we expect from the most dishonest and corrupt administraiton of the last 125 years?
Meanwhile, in the House, Rep. Henry Waxman, chair of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, opened hearings yesterday into former Iraq occupation administrator Paul Bremer’s shoveling of cash to U.S. contractors. Waxman wants “to know how the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) could have shipped $12 billion in cash from the Federal Reserve in New York to Baghdad … with only the sketchiest accounting controls. The cash, all 363 tons of it, was shrink-wrapped into $400,000 bricks and carried on C-130 cargo planes,” according to a story in today’s Seattle Times.
$12 billion … that’s roughly the same amount Bush wants to slash from social programs such as student financial aid because the government ostensibly can’t afford this spending.
Just how much of that cash ended up at Haliburton and Bectel? Iraqai corruption for sure – but great cover for the Cheneys of the far right America …… looters, and traitors.
Think of the drugs and whores…..whew
Will, your clothing isn’t fashionable enough to be a true friend of Seattle. Overalls, stocking cap and jack boots do not go well together anywhere. Who did you have to brow beat or other wise beat up, to get your membership ticket? Kindred, grinning, weaselly wannabees?
THE ONLY ANSWER TO PUDDYBUD’S LOSING RAVINGS: SEEK HELP FROM A COMPETENT MENTAL HEALTH PROFESSIONAL.
Yea, I wondered about the Justice Dept. The Bush administration virtually went to war with the CIA when it didn’t abandon its professionalism and support Bush regardless of the intelligence (hmm, that’s an ironic choice of words, isn’t it?) Then all these Republicans get prosecuted, and I’m proud that the Justice Dept. has professional prosecutors who proceed without partisonship, and what does Bush do? He tries to clean house there, also, stacking it with pro-Bush attorneys.
Maybe he thinks that if he gets enough Republicans on the payroll in the Justice Dept., there won’t be anybody to prosecute him and his minions for the crimes which are about to be uncovered.
18
You’ve picked up an important story that the local media has mostly ignored. John McKay, despite being a Republican, is a fair and decent guy. More importantly, he’d done an admirable job as U.S. Attorney. Nonetheless, the ideological nutcases within the Administration pushed him out because he is “too moderate” for their tastes. Unfortunately, this event is too typical of the Bushite regime–competence and moderation are never rewarded, only toeing the far right line. The bastards.
Wow. It isn’t only the right-wing types that tend to eat their own. We’re pretty good at it too.
The “real users of parks“? You mean that when they asked me to support a parks levy so that my family and I could enjoy outdoor activities, they were lying to me, and what I was really paying for was a campground for transients?
I’m a supporter of shelters for the homeless. It gets cold here, and nobody should have to sleep in the streets, regardless of how they found themselves without other shelter.
I’m not in favor of folks camping out in city parks. That isn’t what they are for. Just to be clear, I’m also not in favor of folks sleeping under the tables at the public library, camping out at the airport or any of the many other places that homeless folks occasionally use as temporary shelters.
Throughout history, there have always been two distict groups that we now tend to lump together as “homeless”.
The first group is comprised of people that have fallen on hard times. They have worked hard to avoid becoming homeless and simply need a helping hand. Whatever these folks need in order to get back on track, I’m in favor of.
The second group is comprised of people that have chosen their situation. Some of these folks also have problems that we, as a society, need to address. Addiction, mental health problems, whatever. Some of the folks that have chosen to be homeless simply need help, and that help should be available.
There are, however, some folks that simply choose to live off the efforts of others. They live in the public parks and other public facilities because that is their chosen lifestyle. They turn down the opportunity to enter drug rehab programs because they do not wish to give up their addictions. I may not understand those choices, but it is well documented that some folks are homeless by choice.
For those folks, I will continue to support shelter programs and food programs, but yes, I want them out of the park. They may choose to live off the efforts of others, I do not choose to support them in that way.
Sorry if that isn’t liberal enough for you.
7
I was not aware Goldy wrote this post. Thanks for clearing it up.
What a fucktard.
@ 27
John, thanks for the thoughts. Also, thanks for supporting HA.
I’m a liberal guy, but I can’t stand having parks that are paid for by taxpayers being hogged by one group of people. City Hall Park next to the King County building downtown is a nice park, but you’d never know. It’s always full of people drinking and camping out.
I’m not anti-homeless either, I’m just pro-“letting regular folks use the parks”.
27
I would like to second every word of John’s post.
He hit the nail on the head.
Federal prosecutors are political posts and serve at the pleasure of the administration. How soon you forget that when Clinton came into office, he fired all of them. Did you squawk then? Probably not.
Just because the senate is investigating doesn’t mean anything. They can waste their time doing whatever they want.
Roger Rabbit @ 20,
I’ve done a little math on your post above, and things aren’t adding up too well. 363 tons is 726,000 pounds. A single C-130 has an Allowable Cabin Load (ACL) of just 25,000 pounds. That would take sightly over 29 C-130 sorties to move the money.
The 25,000-pound ACL is a maximum. There is also a maixmum ramp gorss weight restriction on the C-130, and, if memory serves, it’s around 130,000-pounds maximum ramp gross weight. So, with 25,000 pounds of cargo (the money) the aircraft can only take on so much aviation fuel without exceeding the maximum ramp gross weight. That means there must be multiple refueling stops along the way.
Since the C-130 is a relatively slow aircraft (it’s a turboprop, and I think it “trues-out” at about 280KTAS (knots true airspeed)). That means the C-130s involved in this “mission” would have to stop for refueling and crew changes (as far as I know, the maximun “crew duty day” for Air Force flight crews is 16 hours).
So, the Air Force must prepare for this mission by pre-positioning stage crews in the system. Since the mission is from New York to Baghdad, It’s possible to run a stage through Keflavik in Iceland or Lazes in the Azores. Weather is generally a factor in Iceland, so the stage would have to be run through Lajes in the Azores. And that’s not the greatest plae to land, as I’ve routinely had to handle 25-know crosswinds at that little island to get my butt on the ground safely. It’s probably a better choice than, Keflavik, however.
Additionally, there would have to be stage locations in England (or maybe Spain, if the Spanish would allow it),maybe Sigonella in Scicily, and finally Baghdad. Of course, all stage locations would have to be bi-directional, staging the crew from New York, to Lajes, to Spain, to Sigonella, to Iraq, and all the return sorties.
All these aircrews would have to be pre-positioned, of course, and that might take a week just to get everyone in the correct place before the flow began. Oh, yeah, don’t forget the maintenance and other folks that need to be positioned in the airlift flow. I’d estimate about 10 C-130s and all the supporting equipment and people would be necessary to run this operation. It would take about two very difficult weeks to accomplish, and take a lot of C-130 airlift capability that could probably be better-used somewhere else.
Roger, your facts are no-doubt not facts at all, and you’re buying-into a story that is patently ridiculous. I know this because I spent many, many years in the airlift world, including running the 156 C-130s around the Middle East for the first Gulf War. Whoever told you this fairy tale doens’t know what they’re talking about.
janet s
You are right, federal prosecutors are political posts. Clinton, as does every president, cleaned house when he came in. So, did Bush. That’s not what the issue is here. Bush appointed John McKay six years ago, replacing Clinton’s appointee. That was his right, and reflects tradition. Now, however, he is firing his own picks because of pressure from the far right in his own party. McKay is a Republican, and highly respected within the local legal community. That’s how you want the top local federal prosecutor to be. Ironically, Bush’s desire to install a more conservative U.S. Attorney here is likely to backfire here. The change in the Senate majority is going to bite him on this issue.
I did find it rather curious last week that the head US Marshal was bailing out not long after McKay, especially since it was reported that they’re close friends. Also interesting that out local feds have built a reputation for trying to fight real crime.
I suppose the new crew in the big cement block downtown will put more emphasis on porn and pot busts and looking for Arab “terr’ists” in every nook and cranny.
goldy, i’ll help you out a little – if you want groups like the PWC or FOS (or their supporters like yourself) to be taken seriously, stop being intellectually dishonest.
this isn’t a new freeway. it’s a proposal to FIX AN EXISTING FREEWAY which currently serves a particular need. in order to continue moving N-S traffic through this city (and not cripple it by transferring the traffic to an already overloaded I5), and to not fuck over any person living west of Hwy99, you’d better have a far better approach than ‘tear it down & see what happens’.
i’d treat people who advocate for surface/transit with less disdain if they actually had concrete transit proposals. hell, I’d treat them with less disdain if they showed any consideration at all for traffic patterns & population increases 20 years from now. working to get people out of their (non-electric) cars is a wonderful goal, but trying to force them out of those cars by purposely making the traffic worse will not end well for anyone advocating those ideas.
Lib @ 32:
Not to discount your military experience, but here’s the link to the story with an excerpt. Interestingly enough, not Bremer nor anyone else in the administration, CPA, or the Pentagon has denied the movement of cash and has been widely reported worldwide.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/17007333/
Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Calif., chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, disagreed, telling a House hearing that Bremer failed to establish any control over the money after 363 tons of cash was loaded onto airplanes and sent into the war zone in 2003.
The point is the viaduct needs to have something done- I say something that can last, whatever that may be. That way we can get on with our lives and work to end global poverty so that the homeless won’t be in our parks. According to the Borgen Project, $19 billion annually is all that is needed to end global hunger by 2015. Now that’s a nice number compared to the trillion that we may well surpass in Iraq.
GBS @ 36,
My point was to point out that Roger was guilty of assuming something he read was true without having a sceptical eye. Roger Rabbit delights in accusing others of accepting false statements as true, so can he take the humiliation of being guilty of the same thing?
BTW, I hardly think MSNBC is reliable in anything it says. It that organization said it was raining outside, I’d have to look for myself to make sure they weren’t lying.
Voting rebuild – a sure bet.
SO tired of six years of blah, blah.
Lets move on – a lid on top will create another space for a sculpture garden, and plant vines and shrubs.
Homeless shelters under where the yuppies and tourists and pseudo progressive do not have to see them.
MSNBC is hardly a reliable regurgitator of right wing talking points anyway.
Neither is Fox.
Will @ 27. Parks have to be specifically designed to encourage use by all sorts of people. The Seattle Parks Department, or whoever is dug up to design parks, either has no clue or goes out of the way to produce designs that don’t work well in this regard.
Steinbrueck Park, Occidental Park, OSP, the BMX freeway dirt hole, City Hall Park, Denny Park are designed ass-backwards. The one new Park I favorably credit its designers is the Capitol Hill Reservoir Park. (IMO, the reservoir had to be covered.) It’s a much more user-friendly park in its current incarnation. Perhaps because there was so much neighborhood objection, its design was more comprehensive?
Jason @ 35, you are like a neanderthal, homo automatonus. Your exoskeleton mobility device is poisoning your mental capacity. Homo erectus is having a resurgence possibly attributable to their discovery of non-processed food.