***Hilarious response to my earlier post about Rep. Doug Ericksen. GOP bloggers are pissed at the bad press, while the B-Ham Herald’s political guy is just telling it like it is:
For the record, Wally, I generally try to write my own headlines, sir, unless someone else’s is better. Too bad you never seem to realize there is no conspiracy. I promise. You, of course, don’t complain that I’m “slamming” someone when I link to posts on your blog, which I will also continue to do.
***Rep. Geoff Simpson calls bullshit on the anti-light rail attacks dressed up in “governance reform” language:
You hear a lot of talk about “governance reform.” This push is coming from fans of regional financing of state highways and those opposed to light rail. Sound Transit is delivering projects on time and on budget, bringing in hundreds of millions in federal funds and passing audits with the highest grades.
The only thing I regret? That Rep. Simpson represents Kent. You rarely hear Seattle legislators speaking up like this about Sound Transit.
***Rick Steves is my homeboy.
***The P-I interviews tourists about Downtown Seattle:
Convention scouts descended on Seattle to rate its suitability to host major events and pronounced their judgment: The food is good, the people are great, the weather’s a bit of a drag – and could we please do something about all the transients downtown?
Seattle has always had a visible homeless population for as long as I can remember. It is also one of the most needlessly politicized issues we face.
The commie-demos said if they had a nickel gas tax, we’d have a new viaduct. Well?
The commie-demos said if they had 9 cents gas tax, we’d have anew Viaduct. Well?????
Now, they want unlimited tax increases with no promises of ever getting anything done. Typical of the left.
And, as far as ST being “on-time” and “on-budget”? BULLSHIT! That heavy-on-the-wallet rail system is over a decade behind schedule for the originally promised 21 miles, and billions and billions (to quote Carl Sagan) of dollars over budget.
Cut ’em off at the knees. NOW!!!!
I don’t have much problem with using transportation taxes to fund Sound Transit, and I have no problem at all with light rail riders funding Sound Transit, in the same way that car drivers pay for the roads they drive on.
However, when light rail fans want senior citizens on fixed incomes to pay higher sales taxes for Sound Transit, I’d at least like them to tell us the truth about how much we’ll be paying.
I’m still waiting for someone to explain how collecting $120 a year from 1.2 million households raises $28 billion in 20 years — a subject on which lgiht rail boosters have been stubbornly silent.
$28 billion / 1.2 million households / 20 years = $1,167 per household per year
Seeing that Rep. Geoff Simpson writes a nice piece in support of sound transit is good. But he does not come from Kent, he comes from Covington. I really wish that you people in Seattle could read a map. Of course the people running Metro Transit are just as bad. Covington gets piss shit in the way of bus service from Metro and even worst from Sound Transit.But we still support mass transit, this shows the need for good transit service, put a light plan (and just light rail) on the ballot and it will pass.
PS Roger at 3&4, you flunked math. 120 times 1200000 times 20 equals 28.8 billon, now go vote yes for light rail.
The Bush economy
How much worse can it get? The housing bubble drove home prices up 20 to 40 percent above historic averages relative to earnings and rents. So now that the bubble is bursting, you can expect prices to drop by roughly the same amount, and new home construction to contract. The latter plunged last month to its lowest point in more than 16 years. A managing partner of a large Wall Street financial house told me a few days ago the scenario could get much worse. He gave a 20 percent chance of a depression. Read more at:
http://www.salon.com/opinion/f.....h_economy/
I met Rep. Simpson once, heck of a nice guy where ever he’s from.
Bingo!
http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/.....ans22.html
“The Legislature should scrap regional financing of state highways. It was a bad idea when it was conceived and it’s a proven failure today. The state should fund state projects through statewide taxes. The idea that we in the central Puget Sound region should foot the entire bill for state highways while the rest of the state has us contribute for theirs is absurd and unfair. The state’s entire economy is dependent on good roads here so all Washington residents should pay for them.”
Giuliani’s Stalinist Politics: ‘A Culture of Retaliation’
“By MICHAEL POWELL and RUSS BUETTNER
“Published: January 22, 2008
“Rudolph W. Giuliani … made the vengeful roundhouse an instrument of government, clipping anyone who crossed him.
“In August 1997, James Schillaci, a rough-hewn chauffeur from the Bronx, dialed Mayor Giuliani’s radio program … to complain about a red-light sting run by the police near the Bronx Zoo. … That morning, police officers appeared on Mr. Schillaci’s doorstep. … They slapped on handcuffs and took him to court on a 13-year-old traffic warrant. A judge threw out the charge. A police spokeswoman later read Mr. Schillaci’s decades-old criminal rap sheet to a reporter …, a move of questionable legality because the state restricts how such information is released. She said, falsely, that he had been convicted of sodomy. Then Mr. Giuliani took up the cudgel. ‘Mr. Schillaci was posing as an altruistic whistle-blower,’ the mayor told reporters …. ‘Maybe he’s dishonest enough to lie about police officers.’ Mr. Schillaci suffered an emotional breakdown … and … received a $290,000 legal settlement from the city. …
Mr. Giuliani[‘s] … ruthlessness … became a defining aspect of his mayoralty. One result: New York City spent at least $7 million in settling civil rights lawsuits and paying retaliatory damages during the Giuliani years.
“After AIDS activists … challenged the mayor, city officials sabotaged the group’s application for a federal housing grant. A caseworker who spoke of missteps in the death of a child was fired. After unidentified city workers complained of pressure to hand contracts to Giuliani-favored organizations, investigators examined not the charges but the identity of the leakers.
“’There were constant loyalty tests: ‘Will you shoot your brother?’ said Marilyn Gelber, who served … under Mr. Giuliani. ‘People were marked for destruction for disloyal jokes.’
“Mr. Giuliani paid careful attention to the art of political payback. When former Mayors Edward I. Koch and David N. Dinkins spoke publicly of Mr. Giuliani’s foibles, mayoral aides removed their official portraits from … City Hall. … ‘David Dinkins and I are lucky that Rudy didn’t cast our portraits onto a bonfire along with the First Amendment, which he enjoyed violating daily,’ Mr. Koch said in a recent interview.
“Years after leaving Manhattan College, [Giuliani] held a grudge against a man who beat him in a class election. He urged his commissioners to walk out of City Council hearings when questions turned hostile. … He cowed many into silence. Silence ensured the flow of city money.
“Andy Humm, a gay activist, worked for the Hetrick-Martin Institute, which pushed condom giveaways in public schools. When Mr. Giuliani supported a parental opt-out, the institute’s director counseled silence to avoid losing city funds. … ‘We were muzzled, and it was a disgrace.’ …
“As mayor, he picked fights with a notable lack of discrimination, challenging the city and state comptrollers, a few corporations and the odd council member. But the mayor’s fist also fell on the less powerful. In mid-May 1994, newspapers revealed that Mr. Giuliani’s youth commissioner … suffered tax problems …. Mr. Giuliani’s press secretary dialed reporters and served up a hotter story: A former youth commissioner under Mr. Dinkins, Richard L. Murphy, had ladled millions of dollars to supporters of the former mayor. And someone had destroyed Department of Youth Services records and hard drives and stolen computers in an apparent effort to obscure what had happened to that money. ‘My immediate goal is to get rid of the stealing, to get rid of the corruption,’ Mr. Giuliani told The Daily News. None of it was true. … But Mr. Murphy’s professional life was wrecked. …
“This theme repeats. Two private employers in New York City, neither of which wanted to be identified because they feared retaliation should Mr. Giuliani be elected president, said the mayor’s office exerted pressure not to hire former Dinkins officials. When Mr. Giuliani battled schools Chancellor Ramon C. Cortines, he demanded that Mr. Cortines prove his loyalty by firing the press spokesman, John Beckman. Mr. Beckman’s offense? He had worked in the Dinkins administration. ‘I found it,’ Mr. Beckman said in an interview, ‘a really unfortunate example of how to govern.’
“Joel Berger worked as a senior litigator in the city corporation counsel’s office until 1996. Afterward, he represented victims of police brutality and taught a class at the New York University School of Law, and his students served apprenticeships with the corporation counsel. In late August 1997, Mr. Berger wrote a column in The New York Times criticizing Mr. Giuliani’s record on police brutality. A week later, a city official called the director of the N.Y.U. law school’s clinical programs and demanded that Mr. Berger be removed from the course. Otherwise, the official said, we will suspend the corporation counsel apprenticeship, according to Mr. Berger and an N.Y.U. official. ‘It was ridiculously petty,’ Mr. Berger said. …
“Mr. Giuliani’s war with the nonprofit group Housing Works was more operatic. … The group’s members marched on City Hall, staged sit-ins, and delighted in singling out city officials for opprobrium. Mr. Giuliani … became their favorite … effigy. Mr. Giuliani responded in kind. His police commanders stationed snipers atop City Hall and sent helicopters whirling overhead when 100 or so unarmed Housing Works protesters marched nearby in 1998. … [H]is officials systematically killed $6 million worth of contracts with the group, saying it had mismanaged funds. Housing Works sued the city and discovered that officials had rescored a federal evaluation form to ensure that the group lost a grant from the Department of Housing and Urban Development. … ‘The culture of retaliation was really quite remarkable,’ said Matthew D. Brinckerhoff, the lawyer who represented Housing Works. ‘Up and down the food chain, everyone knew what this guy demanded.’
“The mayor’s wartime style of governance reached an exhaustion point in the late 1990s. His poll numbers dipped, and the courts routinely ruled against the city, upholding the New York Civil Liberties Union in 23 of its 27 free-speech challenges during Mr. Giuliani’s mayoralty. … None of this left the mayor chastened. In March 2000, an undercover officer killed Patrick Dorismond, a security guard, during a fight when the police mistook him for a drug dealer. The outcry infuriated the mayor, who released Mr. Dorismond’s juvenile record, a document that legally was supposed to remain sealed. The victim, Mr. Giuliani opined, was no ‘altar boy.’ Actually, he was.”
Quoted under fair use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01.....f=politics
Roger Rabbit Commentary: The good news is that Mayor Rudi’s presidential campaign is choking to death. Short of both money and traction, Giuliani is cutting back advertising in Florida, which probably is a must-win state for him. Look for this thug to get knocked out of the race within the next 10 days, then go crawling into well-deserved oblivion.
@8 Last time I checked King County drivers were sending $130 million of gas taxes a year to other counties, and 31 of Washington’s 39 counties were receiving more gas tax funds than they paid.
Pelletizer@10: Kind of like giving a $800 tax rebate to people who didn’t pay 2006 taxes or who won’t pay 2007 taxes?
If you didn’t pay something and get free money back, is that called welfare?
A Challenge to Will ..
Edwards, the generous?
Will,
Lat night you took offense. I think you called me a liar.
That hurts.
If what I said offended you, I am truly sorry about that, BUT you claimed I said things that wre untrue. I have a life long commitment to truth. I never intentionally lie but .. like anyone else.. can be incorrect.
So calling me a liar implies that I have said something untrue .. willfully. What to do?
In the tradition of Hamilton, I suppose I could challenge you to duel but you may well be e a better shot than I.
So .. my challenge is … show me, show me where I am wrong. If you do, the reward is of your choice ..
1. I will recant and apologize.
2. I will happily buy your dinner at DL.
3. I will contribute $100 to the Edwards campaign.
Fair enough? Blog enhtries instead of pistols seems more civilized.
So … here are the issues:
To be clear, I like Edward’s message. MANY people I respect a lot tell me they think he is the best candidate. Of the the three main rivals he has, IMHO, the clearest, most credible message.
However, when I vote I TRY to find out whether a message is hype or substance.
Perhpas I misspoke or you misheard, so for the record here is what I think I said:
John Edwards campaign as an antipoevertyy movement is harmed by his life style and lack of evidence that he has given money to the poor himself or raised significant moneys for that purpose.
I did NOT say, as you claimed, that Edwards has given NO moneys to poor people. I assume like most of us he does donate to charity. I also know, that under the law, one of his foundations below, the scholarship foundation, MUST disperse sme money. The questions is .. has he done anything significant n raising funds for the poor?
I have a great deal of respect for you and your opinions made me worry that my impressions were wrong. So I spent an hour this AM searching for evidence that I was wrong.
The BEST I can find, is this:
After the 2004 election, Edwards founded two institutions. One at the uNC was headed by Mr. E and had the purported purpose of creating a law center devoted to antipoverty. The Center was funded by (and is funded by) anonymous contributions.
The second is a foundation to fund schalrships for NC kids.
I then looked for both of these on the web. The UNC center is accessible, at least information is, via UNC The center apparently served as a PAC/study center for Mr.Edwards until his camnpaign began, It funded his travel, employed a number of former campaign aids, and supported some conferences. Although JE was its official director, it os not clear if he actually taught classes or received a state salary in this time.
The second foundation was also manned by campaign aids and did raise money. I did nt find accurate numbers as to the amount raised, but did find an announcement that ot had dispersed $300,000 in 2006. Modest.
I then lloked for other blogs commenting on JE .. positive or negative. To the best of my baility this is what seemed to be true:
1. Edwards UNC foundation IS evolving into a real academic center. That means it supports studoies. None of these so far have led anywhere exciting nor .. othert than talk-talk does there appear to be any real action.
Looking at blogs and opinion pieces, the charge is that the UNC center was actually a covert PAC and most of 3what I can read supports this contention. The Center, however, now has a new director and may become something interesting in its own right.
2. I had more trouble finding our what proportion of the scholarship fund raising was dispersed. The foundation did fund a field trip by JE and some NC students to New Orleans but that seems to have been more a publcity event ..for JE, vs poverty than anything else.
On some blogs, the charge is that the Foundation has only dispersed funds when challenged and, in any cae, all I saw was 300K.
Finally, I went to JE campaign site. I find it impossible to believe that he has done more than this BUT not mentioned it on the site.
Thgose are the best facts I could find. They suggest t me that FE is an attorney who has taken on poverty as his “case.” That ia admirable. BUT, to be President he njeeds to lead by example. I do tno see how he has done that.
Your turn.
crossposted at SJ.
“The Nazis were socialists. The Nazi ideologist Gregor Strasser put it succinctly: ‘We are enemies, deadly enemies, of today’s capitalist economic system with its exploitation of the economically weak, its unfair wage system, its immoral way of judging human beings in terms of their wealth and their money.’ The speech that first attracted a young Adolf Hitler to fascism was titled ‘How and by What Means is Capitalism to Be Eliminated?’ The Nazi-party platform demanded guaranteed jobs, the ‘abolition of incomes unearned by work,’ the nationalization of all large corporations and trusts, profit-sharing in all major industries, expanded old-age insurance, a government takeover of big department stores … and countless other ‘progressive’ reforms.
” … (T)he Nazis — all in the name of ‘progress’ — sought to purge the authority of Church and tradition from society, and to replace them with the supremacy of the state and the dictates of political correctness. The Nazis partly grew out of and co-opted the first ‘green,’ youth, and health movements in the West. The proto-Nazi philosopher (and rabid anti-Semite) Ludwig Klages wrote one of the founding texts of modern environmentalism … ”
(Fair use plagiarism via National Review, 28 January 2008, page 36: Excerpt from Jonah Goldberg’s study of Liberal Fascism.)
Abolition of incomes unearned by work: Bummer for pig-fucking shit-eating bed-wetting chimpfaced neo-fascist Rabbits.
The Nazis were socialists
Except for the part about how they were not socialists, this is a very serious, thoughtful, argument that has never been made in such detail or with such care. [snicker]
Goldberg and his book has been so thoroughly devastated (there, and many other places), I’m surprised anyone would post excerpts unironically.
ATJ: His book wasn’t devastated as you “claim” He took on fascism. That’s it. You swallow the kool-aid without reading the book for yourself. You are one of those who never listen to Rush or Sean and then eat up someone on Scare America who disagrees and you are there guzzling!
Your reviewer skipped Fabians, Progressives, and Eugenics.
Why is that? So much for your devastation.
Oh let’s see those “other” links.
Puddy the ??????
Lumping the Nazis with the Swedes and the Canadians seems … well … psychotic?
As for the dangers of a liberal society turning totalitarian, that certainly is possible buut I have trouble thinkinbg of a historic example … unless you confuse Mao and Stalin with socialism?
Even there, the “left” totalitarians took over from (in one case) a right totalitarian monarchu and in the other came to power as part of the overthrow of a foregin, right totyaliitarian invader.
Edwards supporters???
If lee is away or does not want to reply, will domeone take Edwards side?
I know there are a number of you. I hope I worded my comments well enough that I am not asking for a defense. All I want is someone to show me that I am wrong about Edwards lack of credibikity as a poverty fighter.
Looks like another loudmouth ESPN sports person is in trouble…
Dana Jacobsen.
Now we know why Olbermann left ESPN.
From the Huff Post, Fox News and other sources.
Why is it a libbie can say this:”I respect all religions and did not mean anything derogatory by my poorly chosen words. I also deeply regret the embarrassment…. My actions at the roast were inappropriate and in no way represent who I really am.”
Puddystudy: Well Dana, you get drunk and you aren’t who you really am? Did Clueless enter your body when you got drunk? Did you have this amazing transformation when ATJ telepathically contacted you? Did Darryl call you with another of his anti-religious rants? She should join Olbermann on MSNBC.
SeattleJew: Every book written has something that may seem to be whack. And many people may not agree to all parts of a book. But that being said, how can ATJ claim devastation on a single topic which in this person’s rebuttal has holes in it? There are many topics in the book skipped by this “reviewer”.
My Dismissed by Stupidity is held in abeyance because I am waiting for ATJ to deliver his “other” links. But if they don’t appear soon…
***“The Nazis were socialists***
I love how you limp wristed weinies like to take one word from 70 years ago and try to re-write all of history.
I thought NAZI meant:
The National Socialist German Workers Party, (German: Nationalsozialistische Deutsche Arbeiterpartei)
Somehow the word socialist appears in English and German…
@22 Ah hunh
Yep .. the word “Democratic” appeared in the anme of the East German State and of course the USSR was a collection of Republican states.
Cnina, that basdtion of freedom is BTW a Republic too.
Are you fond of the Soviets?
SeattleJew: Nope.
Et tu mon ami?
Nope ..
I do not “like” and sort of fascism … whether it is Stalin’s or Bush’s sort.