HorsesAss.Org

The state labor council has the second in its series “Outside the Echo Chamber” posted here. It’s part of labor’s new and vigorous effort to combat the endless wankery in this state about how we supposedly suck so bad in terms of business climate (thus the sardonic “trademark” bit.)

This second article deals with Washington’s worker’s compensation system and argues it actually is pretty low cost for employers while still providing good benefits for injured workers, by some estimates having the 5th lowest costs in the entire country.

But, surprise, the bidness guys and gals only want to focus on benefits, as if providing decent compensation automatically means costs are too high. But hey, since we didn’t farm things out to (generally conservative) contractors to rip us off, we can keep costs down! Go figure.

(As an aside, you know how it is. Conservatives always want to define worthy and unworthy recipients of help, even if the recipients play a significant part in paying for it.)

The first article in the series dealt with Washington’s overall rankings as a good state in which to do business, if you look at a wider range of rankings than those provided by Boeing-hired consultants.

The Washington Legislature’s Joint Transportation Committee is meeting this morning to hear testimony from an independent expert hired to determine what, if anything, Sound Transit might owe the state for the right to cross the I-90 bridge, and I’m guessing some legislators aren’t gonna like what they hear.

Over at Seattle Transit Blog, Ben Schiendelman has a great recap of the issue and the consultant’s preliminary report, but the takeaway is this: Sound Transit owes the state squat. Under the terms of agreements signed by federal, state and local authorities, “the I-90 center lanes have been permanently committed to transit use since 1978,” and would only be used for cars until a transit agency needed them. Furthermore, the consultant determined that WSDOT only contributed to 2.5% of the cost of the relevant, impacted portion of the I-90 corridor, and thus any claims for compensation would be limited to that.

But as Ben points out, even that 2.5% figure may be a stretch:

Whenever Sound Transit builds an improvement, such as an HOV lane, on WSDOT property, some portion of the value of that improvement is ‘land banked’ — such that if Sound Transit needs highway right-of-way, it can draw from this land bank rather than have to actually pay. Sound Transit has quite a bit in this land bank, and that as well as the Sound Transit contribution to R8A could both be considered credits if WSDOT were able to charge for use of I-90.

The Land Bank Agreement considers full payment as the value of 20 years of use. While the land bank agreement may not apply to this particular transaction, it’s still interesting here: as the center lanes have been used by “highway vehicle , including single occupancy vehicle, travel” (pg. 26) for over 20 years, it’s also arguable that the state investment for the center lanes may have already been fully returned.

The report doesn’t bode well for legislators hoping to slow or kill construction of the voter-approved East Link light rail line, or for, say, House Speaker Frank Chopp, who reportedly hoped to extort a billion dollars or more out of Sound Transit to help offset the outsized costs of his Mountlake Tunnel. It’ll be interesting to see how legislators react.

That’s it, I’m fed up with Mayor Nickels!

First the December snow storm, and now this record breaking heat wave… I mean, I don’t ever remember the mercury topping a hundred degrees when Paul Schell was in charge. And while throughout the campaign Nickels’ challengers have talked an awful lot about the weather, isn’t it time Seattle finally elected a mayor who could do something about it?

That’s why HA is officially endorsing Halle Berry for mayor.

Don’t get me wrong, I appreciate Mayor Nickels’ impressive record on the environment, but after watching X-Men, it just doesn’t compare to Berry’s psionic ability to control the weather with her mind. I mean, think back to last December’s nearly unprecedented snow storm—sure, rock salt and snow plows would’ve been nice… or Berry could’ve just cleared our streets with a thawing wave of her hand. And ask yourself, unlike Nickels, would a Mayor Berry have allowed her beloved (and un-air conditioned) city to suffer through yesterday’s 103 degree heat? I don’t think so.

Yeah, Mayor Nickels sure looks sexy in that hot, skin-tight, black leather body suit of his, but Berry ain’t too shabby in that department either. And, she can control the weather. With. Her. Mind.

Vote for Halle Berry for mayor.

Personally, I love realistic capitalists who say what is what, and over time I’ve become a fan of “Jim the Realtor,” aka northern San Diego County realtor Jim Klinge, whose blog Bubble Info has been linked to by Calculated Risk with some frequency.

It’s possible Klinge and I may not not have similar political views, although I have no way of knowing, but if I was looking for a property in northern San Diego County I would definitely beat a path to his office. He steadfastly offers analysis of his market, mostly residential properties, based on facts, local conditions and historical trends. Plus he’s often hilarious.

Wall Street could use guys like this. Our family had the benefit of a real estate agent who worked like this, and it’s a huge advantage IMHO. It may be your home, but it’s also a business deal, and having someone who knows stuff can be pretty helpful.

Here Jim the Realtor takes a look at a couple of strip malls in his area. I bet the local developers are so glad he puts these things on YouTube.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=110dykaIre0[/youtube]

Around this time every year my daughter and I fly East to visit family in hot and humid Philadelphia, and spend a week or so baking in the sun at the Jersey shore… which is really kinda stupid, because this time of year is typically the most beautiful time to be in Seattle. Warm, sunny days, low humidity, cool nights. Not too hot, not too cold. Perfect weather.

So 102 in the shade? I mean… WTF?!

Yup, welcome to not just the hottest day of the year, or the hottest day for this date, but the hottest day in Seattle ever… both the highest high and the highest low (71 degrees) recorded for any day of the year since records started being kept back in 1891. And also, one of the most humid days I’ve experienced in my 17 years in Seattle.

This. Really. Sucks.

I never thought I’d say this, but I can’t wait until we head East next week to get a break from Seattle’s oppressive heat and humidity.

UPDATE:
The National Weather Service just reported that it hit 104 degrees at Boeing Field at 5:53 PM.

As you’ve probably already heard by now, House Blue Dogs and the Democratic leadership have hammered out a compromise on healthcare reform that includes a public option, and according to McJoan and others, very few major concessions to the conservative wing of the party:

In addition to postponing the vote on the full bill until after recess, Waxman and the Blue Dogs negotiated a basic outline including raising the small business exemption raised to payrolls of $500,000 or over. It keeps the public option intact, and allows for HHS to negotiate rates for the public option. It keeps consumer protections currently in the bill intact.

Like everyone else I’ve been nagging my contacts trying to get details and reactions, but apparently, non-Blue Dogs haven’t been told what’s exactly in the compromise yet, so there hasn’t been much detail or reaction to share. That said, Rep. Jay Inslee is holding a telephone town hall tonight at 7:10 PM PT, and perhaps he’ll have more information by then. The public is invited to call in at 877-229-8493 or 877-269-7289; conference code is 13634.

UPDATE:
It seems apparent that reimbursement rates are at the heart of negotiations on the public option, a fact that Rep. Inslee emphasized throughout his press conference Sunday on last week’s compromise agreement on Medicare reimbursements:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1Q2_ZSn2rc[/youtube]

I specifically asked Inslee if we’d get a real public option out of the House, and he emphatically said that we would, while noting that the Blue Dogs have “balked” at tying the reimbursement system to Medicare. This new compromise apparently takes care of this objection by allowing HHS to negotiate rates. (And, in so doing, options the opportunity to move away from fee for service.)

So while Inslee and other non-Blue Dogs apparently haven’t seen the compromise yet, he sure did have some insight into what was coming.

Yesterday the headlines blared “Train Kills Man,” in what the media widely reported as Link Light Rail’s first fatal “accident,” even though it was clear from the circumstances and eyewitness accounts that the man threw himself in front of the train. Well today, the King County Medical Examiner’s Office rules the death a suicide… but does that mollify the knee-jerk, anti-rail zealots? According to the Seattle Times’ comment threads, um… no.

This story still sounds fishy.

They were calling it a “suicide” before much was known.

Let’s see… a man climbs over a Jersey barrier along a non-pedestrian, transit-only corridor, and in cover of darkness, leaps in front of a moving train. Sounds like murder to me!

More amusing is the fact that the Times apparently felt the need to prematurely close the comment thread after only ten comments, seven of which they had to remove, I assume due to offensive or inappropriate content. Geez… and folks think my comment threads are a sewer.

Note to future candidates: Cindi Laws, the campaign manager for mayoral wannabe James Donaldson and City Attorney Tom Carr… I think she may be crazy.

But then, all us Jews do stick together, so don’t listen to me.

My recent post on Rick Steves interest in running for Rep. Jay Inslee’s seat should it come open received an enthusiastic response for bloggers and commenters nationwide. But it also drew a denial from Ashley Sytsma, the publicist at at Rick Steve’s Europe Through the Backdoor:

I think you were right when you wrote that Rick has one of the best jobs in the world. Right now he’s in Europe researching his guidebooks and writing scripts for upcoming Rick Steves’ Europe episodes. If you’re interested, you can read more about it in Blog Gone Europe.

As for any political aspirations, you can be assured that he has no intention of running for office. As a supporter of the Democratic Party, he occasionally contributes his time by speaking at local fundraisers and events.

Okay. I guess I’ve got no particular reason not to take Steve’s publicist at her word. But then, 2012 is still a long ways off, so Steve’s got plenty of time to change his mind.

UPDATE:
Turns out, speculation about a Steves run first hit print way back in December.

Bill O’Reilly is the dumbest man alive.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xyj1DSEQuy0[/youtube]

Does the heat have you feeling disorderly or acting stupidly? Join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally for an evening of politics under the influence, where the lion will have a refreshing beer with the lamb.

This little taste of beer diplomacy takes place at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. tonight beginning at 8:00 pm. Or stop by earlier for dinner.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sRs28aO-mYs[/youtube]

Not in Seattle? The Drinking Liberally web site has dates and times for 335 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

The thermostat in my livingroom only goes up to 90, so I don’t really know how hot it is, but to put my personal discomfort in perspective, it’s at least 32 degrees warmer than I keep it during the winter.

I know it would be just as silly to blame this particular heat wave on global warming as it is when the science deniers at, say, (u)SP cite an unusually cold day as evidence to refute it, but the climate change models do project warmer, dryer summers for the Pacific Northwest. So at the very least, I guess we better get used to it.

I miss the rain.

The Seattle Times editorial board argues today that bipartisanship is needed on healthcare reform, and I don’t necessarily disagree that bipartisanship would be the preferable course of action… that is, depending on what one means by bipartisanship.

If by bipartisanship one means representatives and senators from both parties working together with the genuine interest of the American people at heart, well then, I suppose that would be a good thing. So too would world peace. But if we mean bipartisanship in the way it was understood during the eight years of the Bush administration—essentially, the D’s caving and voting with the R’s—well then, fuck that.

Now, I don’t expect the opposite, but the truth is, elections matter. Just this past November voters gave the Democrats control of the House and the Senate and the White House, and by comfortable margins. So while serious Republicans deserve a seat at the table, they have to understand that the broad outlines of this healthcare reform plan will be shaped by the D’s, not the R’s. And any such plan without a robust public option is simply unacceptable.

If reasonable R’s and blue dog D’s want to use what leverage they have to help shape the details so that the public option really is just an option, and that it doesn’t duplicate some of the same problems that already exist in Medicare and Medicaid, then have at it. But if Republicans draw the line and say they will not support any plan that includes a public option, then bipartisanship is simply out of the question. They lost the last election, and they simply don’t have the right to expect such demands to be met.

After all, the whole purpose of healthcare reform is to actually reform healthcare, not just to claim you have.

President Obama has already proven himself more than willing to bend over backwards in the service of bipartisanship, more so than he should be, and the Republicans have yet to reciprocate in kind. Instead, they seem to be counting on their obstructionism as a winning political strategy for 2010 and beyond.

So while I don’t blame the Times’ editors for demanding bipartisanship—it’s totally consistent with their rhetorical ethos—I find it silly to demand it in such a bipartisan fashion. For if we’re to have true bipartisanship in shaping healthcare reform, it is in the end, up to the Republicans to unilaterally embrace what would be for them, a complete reversal in their approach to the issue thus far.

“Uh-oh,” I thought as I saw the headline in the Seattle Times: “Sound Transit light-rail train kills man on tracks in Seattle.” All those anti-rail zealots will crawl out of the woodwork disingenuously arguing that at-grade light rail (traveling at the same speed as the surrounding cars and buses) is an inherently unsafe technology. And then I read the article…

The victim, identified only as an adult male, was struck along a transit corridor between Fourth Avenue South and Sixth Avenue South a few blocks south of Safeco Field. Police spokeswoman Renee Witt said early information from traffic-collision investigators indicates that as the southbound train approached, the man — for unknown reasons — climbed over a concrete Jersey barrier south of South Holgate Street and “jumped into the path of the train.”

That’s right… the man was struck along the non-pedestrian transit corridor after climbing over a barrier and jumping in front the train. The headline implies “train kills man,” when in reality it should have read “man kills self.”

And for this, John Niles and his so-called Coalition for Effective Transportation Alternatives argues Sound Transit should be legally and financially liable?

UPDATE:
Clearly, rendering trucks are an inherently unsafe technology:

Washington State Patrol troopers say a rendering truck that lost its load scattered dead animal parts across the northbound lanes of Interstate 5 in Tacoma.

Of course, I suppose that’s preferable to scattering the freeway with live animal parts—that would have been eerie—but icky nonetheless.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
Souped up 1974 Chevy Novas are an inherently unsafe technology.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE:
Merce Cunningham dead at 90. Clearly, modern dance is an inherently unsafe technology.