HorsesAss.Org

Wow, quite a week. Here are some things going on as we roll into the new decade:

– The two major drug law reform bills introduced for this session, HB 1177 (decriminalization) and HB 2401 (legalization), will have a hearing in the Public Safety & Emergency Preparedness Committee next Wednesday, January 13. The evening before, Rick Steves will be hosting a forum in Olympia about reforming our marijuana laws. The Seattle Weekly takes a look at the movement nationwide on this front. Dominic Holden writes about the political risks involved for Seattle-area legislators like Chris Hurst if they block these bills.

One of the contention points for these bills is that neither one adequately addresses the question of home grows. Bill HB 1177 leaves the existing language that governs medical marijuana law alone. However, HB 2401 removes that language without fully addressing what would happen to people (current medical users) who already grow small gardens from themselves, or as part of a non-profit co-op (it does, in some cases, reduce that crime from a felony to a misdemeanor). There are concerns that the state could more readily go after people for growing plants outside of the new regulatory system. One co-sponsor of the bill, Roger Goodman from Kirkland, noted this as an oversight and hopes to clarify the bill within the session. A group of medical marijuana patients were circulating some proposed language to address their concerns specific to the medical marijuana statutes, but as of yet, it hasn’t picked up a legislative sponsor.

– As 2010 begins, there are updates on what might be the most heart-rending drug war tragedies of the last two years. In 2008, a Prince George, Maryland County SWAT team raided the home of Berwyn Heights Mayor Cheye Calvo and his family. Police chased down and shot Calvo’s two dogs and kept his family hostage for several hours before realizing that they had absolutely nothing to do with the package of marijuana randomly mailed to their home in a scheme involving a corrupt deliverymen. A few weeks ago, a judge ruled that Calvo’s lawsuit against the officers can proceed.

This past September, the killing of Georgia pastor Jonathan Ayers was another drug war tragedy. Ayers, who was known for going out of his way to help people in need, was giving a ride to a woman with a history of drug abuse. Unfortunately, that woman was also wanted by the police. After dropping the woman off at a gas station, undercover cops in an unmarked Escalade descended on Ayers’ vehicle (the gas station surveillance video is here). Seeing people come out of a regular-looking car with no uniforms and guns, Ayers sped off. He was shot by one of the officers and drove off the road. He died after being taken to a hospital. This story, however, appears to have an even worse ending for Ayers’ widow and their unborn child, as a Grand Jury ruled that the officers did nothing wrong.

UDPATE: Another tragic event from 2008, the shooting death of mother-of-six Tarika Wilson in a Lima, Ohio drug raid, has ended with a $1.5 million insurance settlement, but no lessons learned.

The Mayor of Nine-Eleven forgets:

(And there are some fifty more where that came from at Hominid Views.)

For the third time in as many weeks, the Seattle Times editorial board is advocating that Congress drop their efforts at health care reform for the foreseeable future.

Given the shrinkage of the economy since 2007, this is not the time to promise every American a new benefit. And that is what these bills want to do. By their attempt at generosity, they would raise the cost of creating a job, especially by small employers.

Spoken like somebody with decent health care coverage.

I, on the other hand, am not so fortunate. For all but a few scattered years of my adult life I have purchased my own health insurance coverage via individual plans, and every year I have seen my costs rise, my benefits fall, and my security ebb away. As of now I spend over $200 a month for a $1,900 deductible and zero preventative care. It is a “catastrophic” coverage plan that, should I ever become seriously ill or injured, would supposedly limit my out of pocket expenses to about $10,000 a year… plus the cost of prescription drugs.

That said, for the tens of thousands of dollars I have paid into the system over the past couple decades, I have never had a claim paid, and when I do seek medical care I am always billed the full retail rate… as much as four or five times higher than the negotiated rate my insurance company would have paid had they covered the service. If I had the income, I could spend more each month for more generous coverage, but as an individual it would always cost me much more and cover much less than the type of plans one can buy through a group. And even this expensive option would be closed off to me should I first develop a chronic illness or injury, which under current law would forever prevent me from purchasing adequate coverage due to a preexisting condition.

And to top it all off, as an individual, with no group or corporation to fight for me, I am exactly the type of person for whom insurance companies are notorious for dropping coverage once a claim is made.

I have never, in my entire life, had a lapse of coverage. I, my parents or our employers have faithfully paid into our health insurance “system” on my behalf for every single one of my 46 years. And yet with each passing year the likelihood that I will be left permanently destitute by a serious illness increases. And this is the broken system the Seattle Times would leave in place, possibly for another generation should our current attempt at comprehensive reform collapse?

But then, I guess, if you already have adequate coverage, reform must seem less urgent.

Gov. Chris Gregoire doesn’t seem so thrilled with the prospect of privatizing liquor sales in Washington. First of all, while proponents are attempting to use our current budget crisis as an argument for privatization, Gregoire rightly points out that the auditor’s report doesn’t show the state raising an additional dime in the short term. And second of all…

“This idea that we go the way of auctioning off, like West Virginia, let’s be clear, you’ll get rid of all your mom and pops,” she said. “You’ll have what they have, which is Rite Aid sells all liquor, is that what you want in Washington state? We contract out now, we contract out to mom and pops in rural areas. What does the auction get you, once every 10 years, possibly a couple hundred million dollars, if you sell high? Now, West Virginia, not that I’m very proud of this, doesn’t sell as much liquor as we do. So you’d better sell more to make up if you’re going to auction off, I’m not sure that’s good policy. You look at our minor consumption sales – we’re well below any state that has it privatized, by like 10 percent. You need to understand it doesn’t help you this biennium at all. Number two, does it really get you any money in the long haul, and number three what are the social policy issues that are implicated here and is that the right direction?”

Washington, like most state store states, not only has lower per capita liquor consumption than the national average, it also has a lower incidence of alcohol related social and health problems. The only way that privatization can significantly increase state revenues is by significantly increasing sales, and with it, the related social costs. So the revenue argument strikes me as awfully cynical.

But I also wonder if the recent interest in eliminating our state store system doesn’t have anything to do with recent legislative proposals to legalize marijuana and sell it through our state stores? We currently have all the infrastructure in place to buy, distribute and resell marijuana in a well-managed and well-controlled system. Dismantling this infrastructure would make it that much harder to implement legalization.

Hmm.

What’s heartbreaking about this Eli Sanders post concerning WA-03 is not that he wrote it, because everyone is entitled to his opinion. What’s heartbreaking is how utterly clueless he appears to be about democracy in general and SW Washington in particular.

Dwight Pelz, chair of the Washington State Democrats, won’t take sides yet. “We have several strong democratic candidates running right now,” he said. “We want to see who can get out there and get the most support before we let a good Democrat know we would like them to pull out of the race.”

He should figure it out as quickly as possible. Time’s a-wasting and Democrats need—way before the summer primary—to rally behind a single candidate if they want to hold on to this seat.

Luckily for those of us who actually live in WA-03, neither Pelz nor Sanders can actually stop people from running for office. Look, I get that everyone plays the “who can win” game, but in the end, if someone wants to throw their hat in the ring, you can’t stop them.

There are five Democrats running in WA-03. They are state Rep. Deb Wallace of Vancouver, Denny Heck, former Legislator and founder of TVW, state Sen. Craig Pridemore of Vancouver, political activist Maria Rodriguez-Salazar of Vancouver and political activist Cheryl Crist of Olympia.

Wallace has a solid, pro-business record and is well liked in Vancouver. I hold her in high regard. She’s a great example of the “big-tent” party, because she may have a different viewpoint but she doesn’t punch the hippies in the face just to score cheap points. Frankly I feel kind of bad about her not being my first choice, but Pridemore is a long-time friend and has his own proud record. Democrats would be lucky to choose between Wallace and Pridemore.

Heck has a lengthy resume, including stints as a Legislator in the late 1970’s and the early-to-mid 1980’s and as an aid to Gov. Booth Gardner in the early 1990’s. He also founded TVW and has business experience. I’ve never seen the guy in Clark County, and I’ve lived here since 1993. Maybe he comes to visit family at Christmas or something. He did grow up here.

Heck lost a race for Superintendent of Public Instruction in 1988 as an odds-on-favorite with WEA backing, so that tells you something. Then he quit and moved on to jobs he didn’t have to get elected at, and he hasn’t been back until…now.

Here’s a fun quote Heck had from today’s Columbian:

“I’m the only practicing capitalist in this race. Nobody has to teach me that 70 percent of jobs are created by small businesses. I’ve done that.”

Practicing capitalist? What does that even mean?

I’ve always maintained that capitalism is the one true religion in this country, so maybe Heck is onto something. It sure seems like the Democratic establishment in this state is looking to impose their religion on those of us down here. Good luck with that, BTW. We always just love having Puget Sound folks decide our fate.

Heck is supported in Clark County by a bunch of old guard Democrats, and that’s just a fact. These people are not progressive and never were. It’s a motley assortment of BIAW-Scoop Jackson types, to put it simply. Plus they are all really, really old, not that there’s anything wrong with that. It beats the alternative. Here’s how long it’s been since Heck ran for office.

However, it sounds like most of us would like Heck personally if we ever saw him, plus his wife once taught Craig Pridemore when he was in middle school. That’s kind of charming, actually.

Heck also has some small personal fortune and has pledged an initial $100,000 to his campaign. Must be nice. Just what we need, another corporate Democrat. Maybe we can reform the bankruptcy laws and turn forest destruction into a good thing. Oh wait, I was thinking of Brian Baird, not Denny Heck, my bad.

Pridemore, my pick, has been a Clark County commissioner and has a proven track record as both a progressive and a winner. He got an earned income tax credit bill passed a few years back, although it wound up not getting funded due to legislative wrangling. Pridemore first scored a political victory in 1998 by beating Republican county commissioner Mel Gordon here in Clark County, and then beat entrenched incumbent state senator Don Carlson to win his state senate seat.

Those who would dismiss Pridemore because of Heck’s money don’t understand Pridemore’s tenacity nor the retail nature of politics down here. Nothing is a lock in politics, but you put your money on the solid horse, and Pridemore is as solid as they come.

What about a TV blitz by Heck’s money? That’s why nothing is a lock. Pridemore is an adept fundraiser, but I’d have to admit it will be a challenge to keep pace with a self-funder. Thus this post, regular folks who care need to know they can play a part in fighting against the corporate Democrats.

As for Rodriguez-Salazar, at the December meeting of the Clark County Democrats she first tripped and broke her shoe, and then announced that she is a Blue Dog. Oh well.

Crist has run before and you can google her. Heart in right place, no chance.

Larry Phillips legislative aide, Leah Zoppi, emailed me to thank me for my earlier post, but also to correct a factual error:

Thanks for your post about Larry’s decision to support Councilmember Drago as a caretaker for the 8th District seat.  However, I need to let you know it contains a factual inaccuracy.  The decision would not have reverted to Governor Gregoire.  That’s only the case for partisan positions, not non partisan positions as voters made the County Council.  There is NO tiebreaker currently in place for filling County Council vacancies.  Which means, if the Council remained deadlocked on the issue of filling this vacancies, the Council would have remained 4-4, with neither side having a majority and District 8 residents having no representative.  This would have impacted the Council conducting business like reorg and passing legislation, and it would have left the people in District 8 with no one to turn to for advocacy on their behalf.

My bad.

Even the most casual observer of Washington state politics is acutely aware of the Cascade Curtain, the physical and cultural barrier that separates East from West, right from left, and Republicans from Democrats. This pathological East/West divide is the cause of much of the dysfunction that plagues our state political system, yet if you ask an elected official how we might bridge this gap, don’t expect to elicit much more than tired platitudes or a roll of the eyes.

But I wonder if one of the ways to bring the two sides of the state closer together both politically and culturally is to close the physical distance between them… namely, by building high-speed rail from Seattle to Spokane.

That’s exactly what’s happening in Spain, where an ambitious new high-speed rail network is binding historically separate and distinctive regions together into a much more cohesive nation:

Spain opened its first Alta Velocidad Española, or AVE, high-speed train route in 1992, between Madrid and Seville. The network has grown to nearly 2,000 kilometers and stretches from Malaga on the south coast to Barcelona, which is north and east.

Supporters say the AVE has begun to transform the country, binding remote and sometimes restive regions to Madrid and leading traditionally homebound Spaniards to move around for work or leisure.

“Spaniards have rediscovered the train,” said Iñaki Barrón de Angoiti, director of high-speed rail at the International Union of Railways in Paris. “The AVE has changed the way people live, the way they do business. Spaniards don’t move around a lot, but the AVE is even changing that.”

By slashing the time it takes to travel from one city to another, high-speed rail in Spain and elsewhere has increased tourism, altered housing patterns, and lured millions of travelers out of airplanes and cars. According to the International Union of Railways, a high-speed train can carry eight times as many passengers as an airplane over an equal distance, using the the same amount of energy, while emitting a quarter of the CO2 per person. It also creates economic opportunities outside the traditional urban cores that never before existed.

For example, previous studies have suggested that high-speed rail could connect downtown Seattle to Moses Lake in under an hour, with Spokane only another half hour away. That’s downtown Seattle to downtown Spokane in less time than one typically spends at the airport before departure. Such a rail line could instantly transform Moses Lake into a viable international airport, while creating the freedom to live and work anywhere near a station.

Live in Spokane and work in Seattle, or vice versa? That’s a shorter commute, time-wise, than between some parts of Long Island and Manhatten. And just think of the economic opportunity this would create in the half dozen or so counties through which a high-speed line would pass.

When we tie the people and economies of Washington state closer together, when prosperity in King County directly generates prosperity in Kittitas and Grant counties too, that’s when the politics of this state will become less divisive. And as has been proven in other parts of the world, high-speed rail can put us on the fast track toward achieving that goal.

I know a lot of Democrats who are pretty pissed off at King County Councilman Larry Phillips for crossing the aisle and joining Republicans in appointing Jan Drago to fill Dow Constantine’s seat, but I’m not one of them. Yeah, I generally hail from the “Democrats are pussies” camp, routinely berating my own party for failing to play political hardball in the face of the nearly intractable, partisan discipline practiced by their Republican opponents, but well, sometimes reality is reality.

The refusal of the four Republicans on the council to honor the will of Eighth District Democrats by appointing state Sen. Joe McDermott to the seat, was breach of protocol and tradition that I hope comes back to bite them in the ass the next time the council is asked to fill a Republican vacancy, but this was political gambit from which they had little incentive to budge. Had McDermott gained the appointment, his incumbency would have made him such an overwhelming favorite in November that it likely would have dissuaded other serious contenders from waging a challenge. But with an open seat up for grabs, the race could attract several sitting elected officials, thus sowing disruption through the Democratic ranks, and spreading their financial resources ever thinner.

For example, if both McDermott and state Rep. Zack Hudgins run for the council, that will leave both of their otherwise safe legislative seats open in November. But more importantly, it would tie up the surpluses in both of their campaign coffers from being transferred to more competitive districts. That’s just smart politics on the part of the Republican council members, if totally irresponsible when comes to actual governance.

Think I’m giving the goopers too much credit? Then explain to me why they briefly offered Hudgins the council appointment, but only if he agreed, like Drago, to serve only as a caretaker. When Hudgins surprised them by accepting these terms, they asked if Hudgins would run again for his vacated House seat in November, and when he said yes, they withdrew the offer.

Maximum disruption of Democratic legislative races, that’s what the Republicans were shooting for, and perhaps, that’s what they’ll get. So why aren’t I pissed at Phillips for caving to their demands, especially considering that the appointment would have fallen to Gov. Gregoire had the council post remained vacant for another 30 days? Because the cost of waiting another month was simply too high.

Had Phillips and the Democrats waited for Gregoire to appoint McDermott, as she surely would have, it would have meant two legislative seats changing hands in the middle of a crucial short session. First McDermott’s seat would have to be filled, and then Sen. Fred Jarrett’s, whose replacement would have almost surely waited until after Democrats had regained their council majority. Now, with Drago in place, McDermott can continue to prepare for the session, while Randy Gordon’s appointment is little more than a formality.

Combine that with the fact that the biggest knock against Drago is that she’s not McDermott, and it just didn’t make sense to drag out this four-four deadlock any longer… at least if your primary concern is governance. We needed to settle this before the start of the session, even if it meant caving to the Republicans’ irresponsible and petty demands. So in my opinion, Phillips probably did the right thing in breaking ranks.

That said, I hope we can count on him for demanding political payback, when payback is ultimately due.

UPDATE:
Apparently, the governor cannot break a deadlock over a nonpartisan seat. So I guess I was wrong. It’s been known to happen.

The 520 bridge replacement project is more than another transportation project.

It is an opportunity to build healthy places to live, work, and play that our region won’t see again for at least another half century.

It is an opportunity to be good stewards of the environment and to address climate change.

It is an opportunity for our many local communities to come together and act as a region.

It is an opportunity for us to determine what kind of city we want and the quality of life of our neighborhoods.

It is an opportunity for our state to offer a vision of transportation for the 21^st Century and not just building roads like its 1959.

Finally it is again an opportunity to move our transportation system forward.

It will take leadership to bring together all the many points of view on how to best move forward on transportation. But we have done it before.

During my time as Chair of the House Transportation Committee, working with my Republican and Democratic counterparts in both the House and the Senate, we passed fourteen and half cents in gas taxes by bringing road and transit advocates from the east and west side together.

(I point out the fact that I worked to pass the largest financing package for roads in our state’s history only to preempt the pigeonholing of my perspective here as that of another Seattle Democrat transit advocate.)

It will take leadership from the environmental community to get transit right. Transportation remains the single largest contributor to global warming in Washington State – over half our greenhouse emissions come from vehicles. The 520 bridge project offers a real opportunity to build a transportation structure of the future that contributes to the solution.

Neither the legislation authorizing the new 520 bridge, nor any of the current designs, integrate transit into the design or planning of the project. Nor is there any financing mechanism for new transit in the corridor, particularly for high capacity transit. The name alone — “The 520 Bridge and HOV Replacement Project” – is proof that again we are building a road to move cars, and not a transportation corridor to move people and goods. The current plan amounts to placing existing buses onto new HOV lanes to share with cars. Glaringly, it lacks a streamlined connection for transit riders between the north/south transit corridor at new Sound Transit Station at Montlake and any future transit riders moving east/west from the new 520.

It will take leadership from the City to bring neighborhoods that currently disagree amongst themselves together. Far more people live and work near the 520 bridges then the Viaduct. The City should use the model it developed during the creation of urban villages to approach the project in a comprehensive manner. It should put the Departments of Planning, Neighborhoods, and Transportation on the ground and bring together neighborhoods that are currently divided, creating an all-neighborhoods comprehensive mitigation and transportation plan. It is impossible for the Seattle legislators to support a city position when one is lacking.

It will take leadership on the part of the county to bring urban and suburban interests together. The county with the new leadership of Dow Constantine from Seattle and Fred Jarrett from the east side of Lake Washington is uniquely positioned to bring both sides of the lake together and act as a region. The state should consider allowing the County to assume all coordination for planning and financing for a new 520 and I-90 corridor transportation authority.

It will take leadership in the Legislature to address the fact that the current financial plan is unattainable. During the negotiations to pass the nine-and-a-half-cent gas tax east of the lake, legislators insisted on moving $1.5 billion out of 520 and applying it to I-405. Now we have a shortfall. The solution is to toll I-90 in addition to 520, and committing toll revenues to the construction, maintenance and operations of the bridge and of transit.

If we fail to come together as a region on a project that is crucial to our economic future, I believe we will destroy the coalition that moved our transportation system forward and return again to the defeats we suffered in years past.

We have succeeded in the past and we can do it again. Let’s capitalize on the many unique opportunities we face. Let’s move our transportation system forward.

— Sen. Ed Murray

U.S. House Republican Whip Eric Cantor has sent out a memo naming the 37 Dems who voted for the House health care reform bill, but who he believes can be persuaded to vote against final passage. And our very own Rep. Adam Smith (WA-9) is listed amongst them.

According to Cantor, he only needs to turn 3 of the 37 to kill the bill.

While it remains to be seen what the final bill will look like, Rep. Smith’s constituents should be prepared to vigorously lobby their congressman until and unless he confirms his support. Cantor and his colleagues can bluster all they want, but it’s local voters who politicians listen to most.

Newly elected Bellevue Mayor Don Davidson on the future of light rail in his fair city:

“They haven’t figured out how to get across Lake Washington. It’s going to be quite a bit of time before we see light rail being laid here.”

Um… when are anti-rail, Kemper Freeman toadies like Davidson going to pull their collective head out of the sand (or whatever dark hole in which they keep it)?  Sound Transit has figured out how to get light rail across Lake Washington. It’s this fancy new technology they call a bridge. In fact, they plan to use the same center span of the I-90 floating bridge that was specifically designed to accommodate light rail in accordance with a memorandum signed by the city of Bellevue way back in 1976.

I understand that Davidson would prefer that East Link pass by the outskirts of Bellevue, or pass unseen through a half billion dollar tunnel (paid for by anyone but Bellevue taxpayers), or ideally, not be built at all. But statements like this one just makes him sound like an idiot.

Last night the Democratic Precinct Committee Officers of the 41st Legislative District overwhelmingly selected attorney and activist Randy Gordon as their first choice to fill state Sen. Fred Jarrett’s recently vacated office. The final tally:

Randy Gordon     54
Aaron Belenky     9
George Pieper     8

Legally, the King County Council can appoint any of the three nominees above as Jarrett’s replacement, but according to protocol and precedent, the council almost always selects the first choice of the PCOs, and unanimously. And with such a decisive victory last night, it’s hard to imagine the council breaking with tradition.

So my congratulations to soon-to-be-senator Gordon, who has certainly worked hard enough over the past few years to put him in this position, and who I am confident will well represent the progressive values of Democrats throughout the district, the region and the state. As I previously mentioned, I first met Gordon in 2005 when he was a classmate of mine at Camp Wellstone. Other graduates from my class include state Representatives Marko Liias (D-21) and Tina Orwall (D-33), and state Sen. Eric Oemig (D-45), not to mention Darcy Burner.

That’s quite a group of accomplished alumnae, and both Wellstone Action and Progressive Majority deserve your support for bringing this valuable candidate training program into Washington state.

It’s about time to break that New Year resolution by joining us tonight for a little politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. beginning about 8:00 pm. Or stop by earlier and join me for dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 341 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

North Dakota Sen. Byron Dorgan will not seek reelection.

Anybody who thinks the Dems won’t have fewer seats in both houses next year than they have this year is crazy, and anybody who thinks we’ll get a better health care reform bill with fewer Dems than with more, is out of their fucking mind.

It would have been nice if the Senate leadership had the balls to go nuclear and do away with the filibuster, but they don’t and they won’t. So the bill we get out of conference is the bill we get. And if we don’t pass anything, the Democratic loses next November will be even steeper than they otherwise would be.

Time to pass health care reform, claim victory, and then start the arduous process of incrementally improving on it bit by bit.