It sure is difficult covering Seattle local news from out of state when the local Seattle newspapers don’t seem to cover Seattle local news themselves. Sitting here next to me is the dead-tree edition of the Philadelphia Inquirer, which has five, count ’em, five front page stories this lazy Monday morning: three local news stories — a feature on yesterday’s Philadelphia Marathon, and an international story from the Washington Post — whereas the Times and the P-I have three headlines each, four of the six, features. The P-I is particularly shameless this morning, actually filling a chunk of its front page with a heartwarming feature about, you know… itself.
The one headline the two dailies share is that of missing ex-WSU and Garfield High basketball star Tony Harris, whose strangled body has apparently been found in Brazil. No criticism there — it is a compelling story, tinged with pathos and intrigue. But it is the only hard news story on the front page of either paper.
As usual, the online editions are much more informative. (Okay, a bit more informative. It’s all relative.)
The P-I’s Neil Modie reports that Dino Rossi has been, um, disingenuous, soliciting donations well before announcing his candidacy. Not exactly news, but it’s nice to see the local media acknowledging the obvious.
Rossi’s campaign finance records show the campaign started accepting contributions Oct. 12 and took in $97,750 even before he announced his candidacy Oct. 25. Of that sum, $86,800 came in donations of $2,800 each, the maximum amount allowed by law for the primary and general elections combined.
An additional $60,873 came in on the day of the announcement, more than half of it in contributions of $2,800 each.
Up until that time, the official line by the Rossi camp was that he hadn’t decided whether to run against Democratic Gov. Chris Gregoire again next year. […] Without specifically saying so, Rossi left the impression last week that he raised money more quickly following his announcement than he actually had.
His campaign reported last week that he brought in “over $463,300 during the month of October. He announced his candidacy for governor on October 25th.” That prompted erroneous news reports that he had raised the entire sum within a week after the announcement.
Republicans have been touting Rossi’s early fundraising success, but $333,600 of the total raised was in “double-max” donations — contributors who have given the maximum $1,400 for both the primary and the general. That’s an awful lot of low hanging fruit, and not exactly an indication of broad, grassroots support.
Also not news is yet another Catholic priest sexual abuse settlement, this time $50 million in hush money in Alaska.
In some villages it is difficult to find an adult who was not sexually violated by the priests, who then used religion and their power to silence hundreds of children, Roosa said.
“Despite all this, no Catholic religious leader has yet to admit that problem priests were dumped in Alaska. For our clients, this settlement represents a long overdue acknowledgment of the truth of their stories of abuse, stories that until today were largely denied and belittled by apologists for the abusers,” he said.
Yeah, it represents acknowledgment of abuse, but by settling, it also prevents full public disclosure of the extent of the problem, just like in Seattle, where Prosecuting Attorney Dan Satterberg has refused to investigate church records. Ah well… what we don’t know can’t hurt us, right?
Also not really news in the true sense of the word, Iraq bombing kills 20 as US reports decline in violence in Iraq, Detroit named America’s most dangerous city, and yet another man dies from a non-lethal taser strike. Shocking.
‘not exactly an indication of broad, grassroots support.’
Oh but he does Goldy. And it appears he scares you and others like you, with the strong possibility that he gets “re-elected” and Mrs. Gregoire and her merry band of tax-happy ignoramouses gets tossed out. If he didn’t, then you wouldn’t be talking about him and slinging mud obsessively. True or not, the Queen most certainly has her fair share of broken campaign promises, negative PR and such. I’m only wondering how Roger Rodent will donante to her election campaign; last time I checked med. coupons and gov’t cheese stamps were not accepted.
Mark1: which one are you, dumb or dumber?
But it is the only hard news story on the front page of either paper.
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I’m not sure what you consider “hard news,” but the front page of the Times’ print edition has as its main focus their investigative series of the alternative-therapy based on the PAP-IMI machine. Over the years the Times’ has done some very nice investigative work that’s prompted closer scrutiny and shaken things up.
Mark1 @1,
Yeah, yeah, whatever. No election can be taken for granted, but the trick to this campaign is educating voters about how conservative Rossi really is. If voters understand the real Rossi, Gregoire wins.
how conservative Rossi really is
And the creature of the BIAW – as much as the wingnut lawyers those bastards put up for Supreme Court each election cycle.
You question Rossi’s broad grassroots support? How many counties did the guy win last time….and how many times did the King County dem party have to go back to the well to manufacture…..excuse me…”find” more Gregoire absentee ballots from King County to finally stop doing recounts?
Methinks your partisanship is interfering with your objectivity, Goldy.
But then, what’s new?
re 1: The government cheese program was begun in Reagan’s administration.
It was corporate welfare for the large corporate cheese manufacturers.
Here, have a Kraft’s single! It’s the epitome of flood-up/trickle-down.
Rossi also failed to report his airfare for the R/T flight for he and his family too and from Spokane on the day of his announcement. When was this flight booked and who paid for it?
He also failed to file an F-1 reflecting his financial activity for the 12 months prior to the “start” of his campaign. Rossi thinks he can have things both ways. He maintains that he had no campaign and rescinded his PDC fillings following the 04 campaign and he seeks to use the outdated and inaccurate F-1 filed back then. This F-1 is intended to reflect a candidates current financial profile and should reflect, for instance the amount of cash paid to Dino by Fraudword WA.
What else is Rossi keeping hidden from view?
“how conservative Rossi really is”
Goldy,
I think the “c” word may be a poor gambit. I do not think the majority of voters in Wastate care of their there are C or L.
They do care a lot about leadership and as I keep saying the guv seems clueless on this issue.
The averag eperson,. moreover will only be uset by Dino’s politics IF ot omplies policies that are offensive. So yeh, if Din is dumb enough to propose anything smaking of right to life, creationism, or strict Ayn Rand liberaism, THEN your tack will work.
Otherise, calling Dino a C, is a waste of time. All ti does is mean he will camoaignh un the appelation.
STOP THE PRESSES: Washington has new US Senator!
State dignitairies attend Fox Theater repoening
Janet O / KXLY4 Reporter
Last updated: Saturday, November 17th, 2007 05:56:35 PM
Spokane Mayor Dennis Hession and Senator Cathy McMorris Rodgers were in attendance as Washington Governor Gregoire cut the ribbon on the new Fox Theater.
SPOKANE — Many of the local and state dignitaries got their first look at the newly remodeled Fox Theater on Saturday.
Invited guests and other theater-goers stood in the rain on Saturday afternoon for a ribbon-cutting ceremony. Among the many people in attendance at the ribbon cutting ceremony on Saturday afternoon were Senator McMorris Rodgers and Mayor Hession.
I reported this error last evening, and as of 10AM this morning it is still up on the KXLY website. Seems that they really believe in their new GOP Senator.
Looks like the real estate agent who worked for a broker who went to prison for fraud is being less than honest in his quest to become governor.
“Iraq bombing kills 20 as US reports decline in violence in Iraq, Detroit named America’s most dangerous city”
Ah, but don’t you see the connection, Goldy? The new WingNut (TM) Talking Point (SM) is the fact Americans are dying in Detroit makes it okay for Americans to die in Iraq.
The fishwrapper today ran the second part of its investigative series on quack medical devices being marketed by crooks as “cures” for everything from cancer to AIDS.
Bottom line: Quackery and medical fraud are flourishing as a result of lax FDA oversight and the privatization of supervision of “clinical trials” which — as you might guess — has turned “clinical trials” into high-pressure sales gimmicks.
Meanwhile, patients are dying and no one is prosecuted.
@1 Why would any thinking person support Dino Rossi for even a minor office? The guy has no credentials and very little political experience (and what political track record he has, is all bad). How can anyone with say with a straight face that a guy who briefly supervised one part-time janitor while in college is qualified to run a state government with over 100,000 employees? Given the very poor judgment he displayed as a real estate agent, how can any responsible voter trust him to make critical decisions for our state? Dino Rossi is a joke. Mike the Mover is as qualified to be governor as Dino is.
@3 I agree the Times’ story on quack medical machines is an important story — not least because of the overtones of regulatory quackery in the background. All the Bush trademarks are there: Lax FDA oversight + privatization of oversight functions = flourishing medical fraud + no prosecutions + no recompense for victims.
It wouldn’t surprise me a bit if the thieves selling those cheaply made and sometimes dangerous “biofeedback” machines as medical cures donate money to Republicans. It also wouldn’t surprise me if Republicans take campaign donations from people like that. But whether stolen money or blood money supports GOP campaigns is beside the point. The main point is that GOP antagonism toward government regulation allows crooks and snake oil salesmen to thrive at the expense of the unwary public.
@4 What we really need to do is educate voters about how dishonest Rossi is.
@6 The truth, George, is that Democrats didn’t “manufacture” any votes whatsoever. Did you observe the recount? No, you didn’t. You’re blowing smoke out of your ass! Republican liars like you have tried to spin the ordinary mistakes and human errors that occur in every election — and occurred in every other county as well, including the so-called “red” or “Rossi” counties — into a dark conspiracy by King County election officials to “steal” the election for Rossi. It’s total bullshit, and you’re a fucking liar.
@6 This crapola has been rehashed so many times in these comment threads it’s not worth repeating anymore. Executive summary: Rossi spent $2 million to hire the state’s best lawyers, and his hand-picked Republican judge in their hand-picked Republican County found that Rossi got 4 fraudulent votes, and Gregoire got no fraudulent votes. The judge also found that Washington’s system for restoring voting rights to felons is a confusing mess that resulted in over 1,000 people voting who, under existing law, weren’t eligible to vote. No one knows who those felons voted for; however, demographic analysis together with anecdotal information from press interviews with some of these felons indicate a strong likelihood that about 90% of them voted for Rossi. Now go fuck yourself, George.
@7 Corporations get 5 times as much taxpayer largesse as the poor do — a fact that WingNut (TM) Whiners (SM) railing against “welfare” always conveniently fail to mention.
The last time I glanced at the pathetic little rival blog, I saw a comment to the effect that we should solve our transportation problems by offering “incentives” to businesses to relocate to less populated areas of the state.
Translation: Our Republican friends want you to pay taxes to raise money to be given to business owners as a reward for moving their businesses and jobs out of Seattle.
Fuck you rightwing titsuckers.
@21 Needless to say, the taxes they want you to pay for this purpose are regressive taxes; i.e., the kind paid primarily by poor people.
I have a suggestion. If the state is going to offer “incentives” to get businesses to move to counties where no one lives because those places have no water, no natural resources, no infrastructure, and absolutely nothing else to recommend them as places to live, work, or do business, then let’s tax inheritances, investments, and luxury items like yachts, personal airplanes, houses over 3,000 square feet, indoor swimming pools, and expensive cars to raise the money.
@3 I agree the Times’ story on quack medical machines is an important story — not least because of the overtones of regulatory quackery in the background. All the Bush trademarks are there: Lax FDA oversight + privatization of oversight functions = flourishing medical fraud + no prosecutions + no recompense for victims.
————–
So true, so true. As a footnote I’ve come to see one of the most important functions of local papers is their ability to break open stories like this. The Times did the investigative work on the recruiting scandal at Sealth High School that the district/school could not/would not do. Their “Coaches Who Prey” series cast a harsh light on how predatory coaches were passed from school to school by districts who simply wanted to pass the problem on. They’ve done many other wonderful investigative series, the PI to a lesser extent.
@8 Rossi is a crook, and this time around, voters won’t be as gullible. In addition, an important difference between the 2004 and 2008 elections is that it will be much more difficult to “black box” the 2008 election, because most or all counties will use paper mail-in ballots, and if any touch screen machines at all are still in use, this time they will be equipped with paper tapes. So, Diebold won’t be able to pad Rossi’s vote total, as happened in Snohomish County, which was rife with voting machine fraud in ’04. Finally, Governor Gregoire has a track record in office to run on, while Rossi is still the same pipsqueak he was four years ago. It won’t be close this time. Gregoire will cruise to a safe, if not easy, re-election.
Also, with better tracking of felons and the purge of ineligible felons from voter registration rolls that has occurred since ’04, Rossi automatically loses about a thousand votes by not getting the felon vote.
@9 What’s your concept of “offensive,” SJ? When Rossi was a state senator, he “balanced” the state budget by axing 40,000 poor kids from health care. Why not axe the same amount from business tax breaks and corporate welfare? Why pick on those least able to defend themselves? Rossi’s policies ARE offensive. Why don’t you get that? Did you sleep through the last election?
If Rossi becomes governor, developers and property owners will have a free hand in this state, and the environment be damned.
If Rossi becomes governor, you can also expect union busting, contracting out, privatization, and mistreatment of state workers.
@24 The P-I doesn’t have the money to hire enough staff to compete with the Times on local coverage. It costs millions of dollars to staff a substantial newsroom. The P-I is a shoestring operation.
Mr. Rabbit, Rossi wants to cut red tape and gov regulation which will greatly reduce the white collar crime rate and thus allow those who would otherwise be Rossi felons to vote.
Like Rossi always says: “let felons be entrepreneurs again”
RR @25: Well, agreed. Still, what you say will only be true if Rossi is prevented from directing the scope and content of the debate and if the facts about his low ethical behavior stay in the press.
I thought this must have been a lively discussion with all the posts, but I came in here and realized it was mostly Roger Rabbit SPAM.
@31 That’s about the size of it. The GOP crime-reduction program consists of legalizing white collar crime.
@33 If you prefer to read wingnut spam try the pathetic little rival blog. Lots of wingnut spam over there.
to run a state government with over 100,000 employees
Actually, the number was over 150,000 a year ago, and Gregoire has significantly added to that number since.
http://ftp2.census.gov/govs/apes/06stwa.txt
Let’s see,…with 6.4 million citizens, that means that 2.3% of the citizens of the entire state are state worker drones, whose salaried are paid for by everyone else.
Oregon with 3.7 million people has a mere 75,000 (2%) and California with 37.5 million has 475,000 (1.3%).
Kind of makes you wonder why our state is so inefficient when both larger and smaller states on the west coast have fewer state employees than Washington, doesn’t it? Why do we need 15% more state employees per capita than Oregon, or worse yet, 40% more than California?
I think we ought to do some major league cutting of state employees. Can anyone give me even one good reason that we ought to have state liquor stores?
Having been personally acquainted with Karen McBeth (the Seattle woman covered in Sunday’s article about the “EPFX” machine) and her husband, I’d like to point out that these were highly intelligent, educated, knowledgeable people. Not exactly the stereotypical backwater trailer dwellers or confused seniors one normally thinks of as prey for charlatans. Before Microsoft, Al worked at Physio-Control.
What this perhaps illustrates is that when someone–anyone–gets desperate and/or scared enough, emotion eventually quashes reason. There seems to be an obvious parallel with so many people who know deep down inside that the lifestyle they’re clinging to is unsustainable, who fall prey to the religious and political snake oil being peddled by the dominionists and neoconservatives.
Dear cheese-eating surrender monkey: Kraft was not and is not the “epitome of flood-up/trickle-down.” The epitome, as every campesino & companero knows, is Jimmy Carter corn. Ethanol madness stomps the masses and floods more federal money to mega-millionaires in Iowa and Kansas. Then it gives you lib-tards the illusion that you’re pampering the planet.
Use corn for Corn Nuts, as God intended, and drill ANWR, as God intended. Amen.
@36: But wait! Roger told us that Rossi would be mean to WA-state workers. Roger did not tell us that “Governor” Gregoire has so blatantly bloated the bureaucracy that it needs to be culled for its own good. If know-it-all Roger didn’t say it, it can’t be true.
The enthusiasm conservatives show for Dino the Dim reveals just how empty their trough of capable politicians is. Dino needs a guide book to figure out how to masturbate. Aside from white teeth, the boy’s only qualification for governor is that he apparently has never been convicted of a felony (though I’m sure he’s committed many).
40 They’re just going for what’s worked for them so far. For heaven’s sake, look who they got to be president!
On the subject of ethanol subsidies….it would appear that the solution of the left to cure the US’s dependency on foreign oil is to starve the poor people of the Earth to death.
http://www.renewableenergyacce.....y?id=50616
http://www.forbes.com/business.....funds.html
http://www.latinamericapress.o.....tCode=5401
An excerpt:
If Guatemalans didn’t have corn, we would have a far higher mortality rate. Corn has allowed indigenous people to survive years of extermination against the Mayans.”
However, a growing appetite for corn-based biofuel in the US has pushed up the price of corn on the international market, raising the specter of a serious food crisis in Guatemala.
The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) estimates that ethanol production in the United States has increased four-fold since 2000, and that in 2006, 20 percent of the world’s yellow corn production was used to meet US demands for biofuel, which has pushed up prices on the world market.
China also consumes 3 to 5 million tons of ethanol a year and has recently set up four new processing plants.
Local corn prices began to soar early this year. Between January and March, the price of white corn in Guatemala shot up from US$180 to $320 per ton, a 78-percent increase in only three months.
Maybe it’s time we tell the caribou up in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge they are just going to have to put up with a little drilling.
Roger Rabbit @26
@9 What’s your concept of “offensive,” SJ? When Rossi was a state senator, he “balanced” the state budget by axing 40,000 poor kids from health care. Why not axe the same amount from business tax breaks and corporate welfare? Why pick on those least able to defend themselves? Rossi’s policies ARE offensive. Why don’t you get that? Did you sleep through the last election?
Roger, we are not talking about YOUR vote (assuming rabbits vote). We are talking about the bulk of voters who vote based on TV adds, traditional ties to one or t’other pasrty, and what they see as self interest.
Being a “C” .. being labelled a “C” will not hurt Dino. BTW, you want to bet HRC runs as a “C”?
The same is true of taxes. People vote for programs and against the tax money to pay for those programs. Logical it is not.
So, I predict …DR will campaign for:
a. legislative relief for our “horrible” taxes.
b. regional planning for transportation.
c. Toll roads for into and out of Seattle but not for long hauls across the state.
d. education reform with something called teeth.
He will cmapaign against:
a. increases in state employees.
b. CG’s leadership skills.
c. a Romney style health plan based on “personal responsibility”
“education reform with something called teeth”
I can well imagine the fun Dave Horsey’s going to have with that.
42 Ah! So now more people are starting to wake up to the fact that running cars on corn squeezin’s is a lousy idea, so the right wing propaganda Wurlitzer is blasting out the lie that it was all the “libruls'” idea? Shall we go back and listen to some of the speeches by King George the Stupid in which he extols the virtues of ethanol?
Not that there haven’t been plenty of Democrats in on the scam–Archer Daniels Midland has been playing both sides in the campaign contribution game for decades, and sucking in gigantic profits from the subsidies that Uncle Fed seems ever eager to shower upon All Things Made From Corn.
@30: The P-I is owned by Hearst, a gargantuan, wealthy company that owns, among other things, Oprah magazine. If they wanted to staff a quality newsroom, they could certainly afford to do so. But since the days when they had the advantage of being the only newspaper published in the morning, they have settled for being mediocre.