Editorial page writers like to think of themselves as solemn defenders of the public debate, but really, they’re just as childish and petty as the rest of us. How else to explain three editorials in recent days devoting precious column inches towards ridiculing state Sen. Ken Jacobsen for introducing a bill that would allow dogs in bars?
Dismissiveness is the rhetorical tool of choice as the Seattle Times mocks the bill as “the silliest piece of legislation this session,” while the Seattle P-I incredulously asks “Bringing dogs to bars? Whose idea was that?“ The lede in the Everett Herald adopts the same scornful tone, asking: “Scooby-Doo, where are you?“
No doubt this is one of the least important issues facing legislators this session, and I gotta admit it’s kinda funny. I actually support granting bar owners the freedom to welcome dogs (few bars would,) but hell, even I couldn’t resist making fun of this bill. But then, I’m just some blogger, not the editorial page editor of one of the state’s largest newspapers.
I guess my question for these editorial boards is, if the issue is so frivolous and foolish, um… why are you wasting so many scarce column inches debating it?
There are many, many important issues that never get a proper public debate because they’re too wonky or boring or difficult to explain (to readers and editorialists alike.) But dogs in bars? Damn… three editorials in as many days. If you wonder why politicians push bills like this, perhaps it’s because this is what editorialists choose to write about? It reminds me of the Times editorial that abused me for having “successfully placed the phrase ‘horse’s ass’ into dozens of family newspapers.”
As if I held a fucking gun to their heads.
Sure, it’s a helluva lot of fun ridiculing politicians, don’t I know it. But my advice to our state’s editorial boards is that if you want to maintain your reputation as solemn defenders of the public debate, you better start playing the part.
Attack the real issues, but leave the snarkiness to us bloggers. That’s what we do. (And we do it better.)
BARK !!! BARK !!! BARK !!!
It is stupid, but I just had to do it.
With tomorrow’s news likely to be dominated by release of an alarming scientific report about global warming, one thing editorialists could use column inches for is discussing global warming’s effects on the Pacific Northwest.
This perspective is offered by the online sumary of a 1998 seminar (http://tinyurl.com/u):
” …[T]he total storage in the Columbia River reservoirs is equivalent to only about a third of the river’s mean annual flow. Therefore, the reservoir system acts primarily to store water from the spring high flow period to be released during the summer and fall; it does not, to any significant extent, store water from one year to the next. Reservoirs on smaller west-side streams are likewise small relative to the mean annual flow of the rivers. …
“The dominant effect of a warmer climate on the streams of the Pacific Northwest would be that less wintertime precipitation would fall as snow and more would fall as rain, resulting in decreased snowpack accumulation, and therefore increased winter flows and decreased spring and summer flows. …
“This change would, in general, create more stress on reservoir systems, as the natural storage of snowpacks would have to be replaced with reservoir storage to meet current water demands. Furthermore, the potential would exist for increased fall and winter flooding, especially in west-side streams ….
“The changes in the seasonal pattern of streamflow generally would have negative implications for fish protection …. The ability of the reservoir system to meet irrigation demands generally would decline …. Recreation benefits for the Columbia River reservoirs … would be more difficult to meet with reduced spring streamflows.”
In 2003, the P-I used some column inches to warn us about how global warming will affect our region:
” … Snow levels are creeping higher up the sides of the Cascades. Glaciers are melting. These indications of a warming climate already have been measured in the Pacific Northwest … more changes are on the way. …
“From the crest of the Cascades to the bottom of Puget Sound, this region stands in coming decades to be transformed: shorter ski seasons. More winter flooding. Reduced summer water supplies. Increasingly destructive wildfires. Further-stressed salmon runs.
“Never before has human society existed in a world where the concentration of heat-trapping carbon dioxide is as high as it is now — the highest in at least 420,000 years.
” … [R]esearchers say evidence that global warming is likely to cause major disruptions has grown considerably stronger in the past couple of years. …
“Things are changing already, many in ways that bode ill, from the mountains to the Sound. …
“Climate experts predict that in the Northwest, climate change will bring wetter, warmer winters, increasing the risk of flooding. In the summer, rivers will likely run lower and warmer — causing even more problems. In the mountains, the snowpack acts like a bank. Water is deposited in fall and winter. It’s withdrawn gradually over spring and summer as it melts and feeds streams. Warmer temperatures are expected to cause less of the precipitation to fall as snow, and more as rain, … depleting the snow sooner. …
“Dams statewide are blamed for disrupting river flow, withholding water needed by salmon and hindering their passage. Climate change could greatly exacerbate this problem. … On the Columbia River and its tributaries, water is released through the dams in the winter to produce energy when heaters click on and the region needs it the most … in the summer … reservoirs are refilled for public recreation and to get ready for winter. This strategy could be shifted. By storing more water through the winter, dam operators would have additional water available to compensate for the diminished snowpack …. Such a major change … likely would reduce power production and require a shift … to other energy sources. …
“The overall picture of how a warmer climate will affect the region’s forests … isn’t pretty. Think dry. Think hot. Think fire. One prediction most scientists agree on: Expect more major wildfires. The western Cascades have generally been spared the big blazes typical of Eastern Washington, the Sierras or the Southwest. But those are likely to become more common — putting thousands of people living in forested communities such as North Bend and Leavenworth in harm’s way. …
“Fire and heat damage, and the stress of drought conditions, will probably leave trees more prone to invasion by insects that bore into the bark or chew up the leaves, scientists predict. …
“An overall hotter climate will bake the ground in the forests and cause trees to lose additional moisture. In some places, moisture-loving trees such as hemlocks won’t survive. …
“Down along the shoreline, the outlook is clearer. …
“As ocean levels continue to rise, the state capital is one of the area’s most vulnerable locations with a large portion of the downtown built on low-lying fill. And so, as was done years ago in New Orleans, Olympia could one day see the construction of dikes and pumps to keep the saltwater at bay. … In Olympia, the sea could rise more than a foot by 2050, or 3 feet by 2100. The city has a history of flooding during storms and high tides. Sea-level rise could make the problem more widespread and severe.
“Also at risk for intruding saltwater, state officials say, are shorelines from Everett to Mukilteo and low-lying coastal cities such as Aberdeen and Hoquiam. The rising sea level can cause shorelines to retreat and weaken bluffs, potentially causing homes to slide into the Sound. In the long term, sea-level rise ‘has the potential for being a major problem,’ said Doug Canning, a state Ecology Department researcher who has studied climate change. …
“The precise effect on the local marine environment and the animals living there is unclear. Ocean conditions are influenced by a complicated interplay between currents and climate, so scientists are unsure where and how warm temperatures will be.
“Some fish already seem to be vanishing. Since the 1980s, Pacific cod have virtually disappeared from Washington waters. … In the summer, streams are likely to be slower flowing and warm enough to kill salmon. …
“One change in the marine environment that is almost assured comes from the mountains. Pollutants — pesticides, heavy metals and long-lived poisons like PCBs — circulate in the atmosphere. They get trapped in falling snow and locked up in glaciers. As climate change increases the melting of glaciers, these toxins are released — flowing into rivers, lakes and the Sound. ‘We very likely will see an increase in contaminants that wind up in the food chain,’ said Jeffries, of Fish and Wildlife.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/3yhf2a
I tell ya, this country is going to the dogs…….
The Natural Resources Defense Council says “the economic, hydrologic and environmental impacts of global warming in the West could be catastrophic.” Specifically,
“The arid American West appears to be particularly susceptible to the effects of global warming. … A growing body of scientific evidence is linking global warming trends with changes in precipitation, declining snowpack, and smaller and earlier spring runoff — conditions that determine the quantity and timing of water supplies in the West, as well as wildfire risk. …
“If current global warming trends continue, they present serious consequences to many bedrock elements of western life, from agriculture and ranching to skiing, tourism, biodiversity and public health.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete article and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/23t88u
An article posted on the “Natural Science” web site asks,
“Does climate change matter?
“So what does all this mean? What, if anything, should be done? Why should we care? …
“It is important to realize that we have set in motion on planet Earth an experiment, which we cannot turn off should we not like … the … consequences. This is because of the long lifetimes of carbon dioxide (centuries) and other greenhouse gases in the atmosphere and because of the thermal inertia of the oceans. The oceans … take hundreds of years to adjust fully to changes, so that manifestations of changes that have already occurred are not yet fully seen.
“It is clear that effects of global warming are fairly small at present, but they are unmistakably emerging and having impacts.
“The insidious thing … is that human-induced changes are always in one direction, and … accumulate with time. Moreover, the changes will continue long into the future even if we want them to stop and even … [if] we abruptly reduce carbon dioxide emissions.
“Although some warming may be beneficial, for example by lengthening the growing season in places like Canada, other projected changes, such as rising sea levels and more extreme droughts and floods, are more likely to have adverse effects. The problem is that just as the climate has changed to a point where you may like it, it continues to change and in ways not fully predictable.
“The process of change itself is also very disruptive … to the natural environment and ecological systems … [and]to human systems, including agriculture, water resources, fisheries, and energy use …. For instance, … design criteria for dams, levies, buildings and so on become obsolete. Thus, climate change disrupts planning. Our understanding of the climate system is such that unanticipated surprises producing disruptive impacts in some areas are highly probable.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2vh28k
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Read that last paragraph carefully — in the context of replacing the Alaska Way Viaduct with a tunnel. Focus on the phrases “design criteria become obsolete” and “unanticipated surprises.” If we spend an extra billion dollars or more to underground SR-99 through downtown Seattle, is it possible that tunnel might, well within its design life, become a giant storm sewer full of water?
And, if we actually have that extra money, would it be better spend on undergrounding our electrical grid, to minimize the power outages we can expect from stormier weather?
Note, this article also discusses the “politicization” of the climate change debate.
Speaking of the viaduct, yesterday’s P-I front page story suggested the viaduct controversy may threaten Gov. Gregoire’s re-election. http://tinyurl.com/ywofpf
Here’s something Gregoire should unleash her formidable leadership talents on: Getting the 520 replacement cost under control. As I recall, the West Seattle Bridge was built for much less than the original cost estimates. The current WSDOT estimate of $4.38 billion for 520 — more than $550,000 per lineal foot for a bridge consisting of low-tech pontoons made from a cheap material (concrete) — seems grossly inflated. A sharp pencil in the right hands should be able to pare a lot off that cost — and reduce the potential impact on property taxpayers and knock that projected $7 to $10 roundtrip toll down to a more affordable amount.
Today’s P-I reports on the global warming report:
“Using their strongest language to date, the world’s leading climate scientists are reporting today that they are basically certain that burning gasoline, coal and other fossil fuels has unnaturally heated the atmosphere — and the effects are likely to last for centuries.
“Their conclusions: Evidence of climate warming is unequivocal. … Researchers said they are more than 90 percent certain that global warming is caused by humans — their most powerful assertion to date. And that conclusion was even stronger until last-minute maneuvering by China, whose exploding energy use stands to exacerbate the problem.
“Worldwide, the report says, the warming is likely to mean intensified droughts and heat waves, along with unusually strong storms …. The scientists also highlighted an increasingly worrisome global trend: acidification of the oceans, which could unravel the marine web of life. …
“In the Pacific Northwest, residents appear headed into a period of more drought, less snow for skiing[,] and less water for drinking and watering lawns in the summer. That could mean perilous times for forests, glaciers, salmon and, ultimately, orcas, which eat the salmon. …
“Today’s report was released in Paris by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which was formed by the United Nations. The ‘Summary for Policymakers’ synthesizes findings of scientists and representatives of 113 countries.
“The group’s last assessment, in 2001, was backed in this country by the National Academy of Sciences, the American Geophysical Union, the American Meteorological Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science. …
“Seattle Public Utilities is studying ways to operate its reservoirs to deal with the changes through more flexible water management. Water supplies are expected to contract each decade by 3.5 percent. The county’s new Brightwater sewage treatment plant is engineered to reuse wastewater for irrigation.
“Climate change ‘is going to be the most defining thing this century in terms of human events,’ King County Executive Ron Sims predicted. …
“Experts advise taking steps to prepare for the coming changes — because even if the pollution stopped tomorrow, the warming would continue. … Chris Bretherton, a UW professor of atmospheric sciences, said that while the climate die has been cast for the next 30 years, ‘On the 30- to 50-year time horizon, there is a lot we can do, and it doesn’t involve any technologies we don’t have already.
‘It’s possible, and it’s not necessarily even that expensive.’
“HIGHLIGHTS OF THE REPORT
“It is ‘very likely’ — a 90 percent chance or better — that burning fossil fuels caused unnatural temperature increases over the last half-century.
“Temperatures are likely to rise from 2 to 11.5 degrees by 2100. (The world has warmed about 9 to 12 degrees since the depths of the last ice age 20,000 years ago.)
“Sea levels are likely to rise 7 to 23 inches by the end of the century, although an additional rise of 3.9 to 7.8 inches is possible.
“Oceans will keep growing more acidic.
“Arctic Sea ice will disappear by 2100.
“Desertlike conditions will expand in the Sahara, South Africa, and Mexico. In general, poor countries will take the worst direct hits.
“The number of hurricanes will decrease, but stronger storms are likely.”
Quoted under Fair Use; for complete story and/or copyright info see http://tinyurl.com/2m27fw
Roger Rabbit’s Executive Summary of Global Warming Report: Mark the Redneck is full of shit.
Turning to other topics, as you can see, Elmer Fudd didn’t get Roger Rabbit yesterday. That was merely a trollfuck’s posting his fantasy on YouTube while I was absent from HA attending a meeting.
Hey, 2 can play this game! Here’s what a trollfuck might look like after coming in contact with my powerful hind feet equipped with razor sharp claws in the process of attempting to act out violent wingnut fantasies: http://tinyurl.com/njv8z*
* Just kidding! Ann Coulter humor, ya know?! (If she can do it, why can’t I? She gets paid millions to publish this kind of crap; I wanna get paid millions too! Where do I apply for that job?)
I see Bush was in florida last night…..
Roger,
Is that the same formidable leadership that made a decision on the viaduct? The bridge would be a lot cheaper without stormwater catchment systems surrounding it and if it didn’t have a landscaped lid on top of it. The lid has a fire suppression system that is outrageously expensive because of the lack of manufacturers.
Gee, within the last 48 hours:
Bush was touting booming economy, saying it is all due to Republican administration policies.
The news reports that far fewer people can afford to buy homes.
Thepersonal savings rate dropped to a new low – actually, a slightly negative number (I think it was -1%). As a nation, we are officially spending more than we are making. Of the lowest savings rates on record, two occured during this administration (2005 and 2006), and the other two occured – during the Great Depression.
David:
Touche.
Roger Rabbit:
You are one hell of a smart rabbit. I too have been astonished at how easily the public (and those editorial pages & bloggers such as David Goldstein) are lead to believe any price which is quoted for a large public work. Liberals are rightfully skeptical of government when it comes to foreign policy claims and defense costs — why not with public works like 520 and the Viaduct?
I don’t know the details of 520 but let’s bear in mind that the new Tacoma Narrows bridge (no tiny structure and over a very hostile environment) is being built on time (at least very close) & on budget for $850 million.
Why 520 should be $4.38 billion (and counting) is because no one asks “Why so much money?” Where are the Republicans when we need them?
Punchline: “… and then Buster the talking dog said: ‘Because I never had $5 before!’ ” Heh!!!
@8 Let’s not forget that job creation is in the toilet — again.
So you think these papers were barking up the wrong tree with their editorials?
I stare out into the darkness from my post, and I watch the city burn to the ground. I smell the familiar smells, I walk through the familiar rubble, and I look at the frightened faces that watch me pass down the streets of their neighborhoods. My nerves hardly rest; my hands are steady on a device that has been given to me from my government for the purpose of taking the lives of others.
I sweat, and I am tired. My back aches from the loads I carry. Young American boys look to me to direct them in a manner that will someday allow them to see their families again…and yet, I too, am just a boy….my age not but a few years more than that of the ones I lead. I am stressed, I am scared, and I am paranoid…because death is everywhere. It waits for me, it calls to me from around street corners and windows, and it is always there.
There are the demons that follow me, and tempt me into thoughts and actions that are not my own…but that are necessary for survival. I\’ve made compromises with my humanity. And I am not alone in this. Miles from me are my brethren in this world, who walk in the same streets…who feel the same things, whether they admit to it or not.
And to think, I volunteered for this…
And I am ignorant to the rest of the world…or so I thought.
But even thousands of miles away, in Ramadi, Iraq, the cries and screams and complaints of the ungrateful reach me. In a year, I will be thrust back into society from a life and mentality that doesn\’t fit your average man. And then, I will be alone. And then, I will walk down the streets of America, and see the yellow ribbon stickers on the cars of the same people who compare our President to Hitler.
I will watch the television and watch the Cindy Sheehans, and the Al Frankens, and the rest of the ignorant sheep of America spout off their mouths about a subject they know nothing about. It is their right, however, and it is a right that is defended by hundreds of thousands of boys and girls scattered across the world, far from home. I use the word boys and girls, because that\’s what they are. In the Army, the average age of the infantryman is nineteen years old. The average rank of soldiers killed in action is Private First Class.
People like Cindy Sheehan are ignorant. Not just to this war, but to the results of their idiotic ramblings, or at least I hope they are. They don\’t realize its effects on this war. In this war, there are no Geneva Conventions, no cease fires. Medics and Chaplains are not spared from the enemy\’s brutality because it\’s against the rules. I can only imagine the horrors a military Chaplain would experience at the hands of the enemy. The enemy slinks in the shadows and fights a coward’s war against us. It is effective though, as many men and women have died since the start of this war. And the memory of their service to America is tainted by the inconsiderate remarks on our nation\’s news outlets. And every day, the enemy changes…only now, the enemy is becoming something new. The enemy is transitioning from the Muslim extremists to Americans. The enemy is becoming the very people whom we defend with our lives. And they do not realize it. But in denouncing our actions, denouncing our leaders, denouncing the war we live and fight, they are isolating the military from society…and they are becoming our enemy.
Democrats and peace activists like to toss the word \”quagmire\” around and compare this war to Vietnam. In a way they are right, this war is becoming like Vietnam. Not the actual war, but in the isolation of country and military. America is not a nation at war; they are a nation with its military at war. Like it or not, we are here, some of us for our second, or third times; some even for their fourth and so on. Americans are so concerned now with politics, that it is interfering with our war.
Terrorists cut the heads off of American citizens on the internet…and there is no outrage, but an American soldier kills an Iraqi in the midst of battle, and there are investigations, and sometimes soldiers are even jailed…for doing their job.
It is absolutely sickening to me to think our country has come to this. Why are we so obsessed with the bad news? Why will people stop at nothing to be against this war, no matter how much evidence of the good we\’ve done is thrown in their face? When is the last time CNN or MSNBC or CBS reported the opening of schools and hospitals in Iraq? Or the leaders of terror cells being detained or killed? It\’s all happening, but people will not let up their hatred of President Bush. They will ignore the good news, because it just might show people that Bush was right.
America has lost its will to fight. It has lost its will to defend what is right and just in the world. The crazy thing of it all is that the American people have not even been asked to sacrifice a single thing. It’s not like World War II, where people rationed food and turned in cars to be made into metal for tanks. The American people have not been asked to sacrifice anything. Unless you are in the military or the family member of a servicemember, its life as usual…the war doesn\’t affect you.
But it affects us. And when it is over and the troops come home and they try to piece together what\’s left of them after their service…where will the detractors be then? Where will the Cindy Sheehans be to comfort and talk to soldiers and help them sort out the last couple years of their lives, most of which have been spent dodging death and wading through the deaths of their friends? They will be where they always are, somewhere far away, where the horrors of the world can\’t touch them. Somewhere where they can complain about things they will never experience in their lifetime; things that the young men and women of America have willingly taken upon their shoulders.
We are the hope of the Iraqi people. They want what everyone else wants in life: safety, security, somewhere to call home. They want a country that is safe to raise their children in. Not a place where their children will be abducted, raped and murdered if they do not comply with the terrorists demands. They want to live on, rebuild and prosper. And America has given them the opportunity, but only if we stay true to the cause and see it to its end. But the country must unite in this endeavor…we cannot place the burden on our military alone. We must all stand up and fight, whether in uniform or not. And supporting us is more than sticking yellow ribbon stickers on your cars. It\’s supporting our President, our troops and our cause.
Right now, the burden is all on the American soldiers. Right now, hope rides alone. But it can change, it must change. Because there is only failure and darkness ahead for us as a country, as a people, if it doesn\’t.
Let\’s stop all the political nonsense, let\’s stop all the bickering, let\’s stop all the bad news and let\’s stand and fight!
Isn\’t that what America is about anyway?
@20 What is it with you guys that you can’t see the trees for the forest? Bush has been at this for four years now, and is not making progress. Don’t you think it’s possible the guy doesn’t know what he’s doing — doesn’t know how to run a war — blew this one?
Sorry, sarge, but your diatribe doesn’t cut it. War is every citizen’s business. We pay for it; we fight (or send our children to fight) it; this is OUR country and we have every damn right to decide whether its policies are wise or unwise, right or wrong. We’re going to debate this war, some of us will oppose it and work for its speedy termination, and if you don’t like it — well, you’re entitled to your opinion. But we’re entitled to ours.
Oh, and one more thing. There’s nothing special about your war. It looks a whole lot like the one I fought in Vietnam. War is war. All wars suck. All wars are as you describe them. None of what you describe justifies going to war, or continuing a useless or lost war.
Wars kill real people. They splatter real flesh and blood. Throwing around words like “patriotism” is not a substitute for using the intellect God gave you. Pull your head out of your ass, son.
@20
P.S. — British military historian Sir Basil Liddell-Hart was right when he said wars are won or lost by generals, and if the generals don’t get the strategy right, all the toils and sacrifices of the soldiers don’t count for squat. Sorry, son, but that’s the way it is.
@20 “Isn\’t that what America is about anyway?”
No.
Roger @22,
Interesting that you would say that when Gen Casey claimed yesterday/day before that the troop surge was not needed. President Bush isn’t a General and he relies on his Secretary of Defense who is supposed to rely on the Generals for guidance and wisdom. It makes you wonder whether Rumsfield’s policy of doing more with less soldiers was his idea or his Generals’ idea………..
Gen Casey had several years of horrific failures with his plan for troop strength……….. So, why do we think he knows what he’s donig?
re 20: Smells like teen spirit.