RICHLAND — Workers cleaning up the Hanford nuclear reservation are going after radioactive wasp nests.
I think I’ve seen this movie, and it didn’t turn out well.
by Goldy — ,
by Darryl — ,
by Goldy — ,
Susan Hutchison is clearly running as an anti-tax candidate for King County executive (I won’t say “the” anti-tax candidate, as Fred Jarrett and Ross Hunter seem to be vying for that vote as well), what with her vague, nonspecific talk about “bloated government” and the county needing to live “within its means.” And exactly what experience does she have cutting all that waste, fraud and abuse?
Hutchison said she solved a significant budget shortfall as chairwoman of the Seattle Symphony board of directors. “I solve problems and I fix things,” she said, “and King County needs a fix.”
Except… she helped solve the Symphony’s budget shortfall largely by raising more money. That’s what not-for-profit arts board members do.
Jesus… you’d think somebody might want to ask a follow up question or do a tad of digging before reprinting her rhetorical bullshit unchallenged.
by Goldy — ,
I’ve apparently pissed off more than a few Democratic Party establishment types in recent weeks. Oh, it’s not my reaction to the past legislative session that’s causing consternation; most rank and file Democrats were disappointed, if not downright disgusted at the cowardly all-cuts budget, and leadership’s generally pro-business/anti-progressive agenda. Some legislators too.
No, apparently, where I’ve crossed the line, is not in criticizing the Democratic caucus, but rather in suggesting what I think is an obvious solution: specifically, that if we’re not being adequately served by our Democratic legislators, perhaps it’s kinda, sorta, maybe time to replace them.
Judging from some of the comments and emails I’ve received, the mere suggestion of primarying a Democratic incumbent in a safe Democratic district brands me as traitor, a blowhard, an idiot or some combination thereof. Yeah, the establishment hoo-hahs love me when I’m raking muck on Republicans or doing my best to squash the conservative frame on some manufactroversy or another. But attempt to be taken seriously on a policy issue or dare to dip our toes into electoral politics and… well… we lowly bloggers are scolded to know our place.
The irony is, we all know there’s a fair share of deadwood in the Seattle delegation, along with a handful legislators who simply aren’t as progressive as their constituents on a number of important issues, such as pay day lending, the homebuyers bill of rights, tax restructuring, and more. Indeed, start this conversation at nearly any political gathering, and the same names keep popping up again and again, the usual suspects of Democratic incumbents who deserve a serious, well-financed primary challenge, and who just might not survive should they face one.
So why don’t I name names, as some in the comment threads have challenged me to do? Oh God, I’m tempted, but coming from a lowly blogger like me it would only come off as a personal hit list, and do little more than earn me animosity from those legislators on it, some of whom I personally like, even if I think it past time for them to move on and give somebody else a chance at getting stuff done before Republican Rob McKenna seizes the line-item veto pen.
No, the names have to be named by you, so that everybody knows that everybody knows who the weak links in the Seattle delegation truly are. And that’s why starting today I’m launching a series of polls to enable you in our local Democratic community to name these names yourself, and help pick the Seattle legislators most in need of a primary challenge.
Our first poll, now live at the top-right corner of the home page, pits all 12 House incumbents from Seattle’s 11th, 34th, 36th, 37th, 43rd and 46th Legislative Districts against each other in an open primary. Feel free to vote for more than one; the top House vote-getters will face off against each other in a “loser takes all” general election of sorts, as will the four Seattle state Senators up for reelection in 2010.
Oh, and don’t everybody just vote for Frank out of a sense of retribution; pick the reps who you genuinely think are most out of step with their district and/or have proven themselves least capable of bringing home the bacon for Seattle and the progressive community at large. And as a tie-breaker, I’d also suggest considering which incumbents would be most vulnerable to a serious challenge, should one materialize.
There might not be much room to elect more Democrats to the Washington state legislature, but after this last session, I think we can all agree that we could certainly elect better.
by Goldy — ,
Political recluse and King County Executive wannabe Susan Hutchison finally showed up at a candidate forum, though apart from boldly vowing to fix county government by cutting waste, fraud and abuse, she was by most accounts, short on details:
In a conversation with reporters afterwards, she said more of her positions would be known in the coming weeks.
You know, after her positions have become known to her.
by Jon DeVore — ,
House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) compared President Obama’s actions in the auto bailouts to Vladimir Putin. “They said, ‘Set aside the rule of law, let’s strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights. Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers’ unions,'” said Cantor. “It’s almost like looking at Putin’s Russia,” he added. “You want to reward your political friends at the expense of the certainty of law?”
It must be rough being one of the richest people in Congress.
Cantor’s net worth comes largely from dozens of investments in mutual funds and individual stocks. Cantor’s wife draws salaries from a New York bank and the Virginia College Savings Plan, as well as director fees from Media General Inc. and Domino’s Pizza.
But Cantor’s net worth has suffered along with other members who invest in the stock market. For example, Cantor invested between $1,000 and $15,000 in General Motors on June 4, 2008, when the stock was trading at $17.01. On Wednesday, General Motors stock closed at $1.45.
This is Republican logic for you: “we ruined the economy, and even though we’re still rich we’re not as rich as we used to be, therefore Obama is a socialist.”
Up is down, etc.
by Jon DeVore — ,
The New York Times reports on a CDC study concerning the most common sources of food poisoning.
Poultry was the most commonly identified source of food poisoning in the United States in 2006, followed by leafy vegetables and fruits and nuts, according to a report released Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It sounds like serious efforts are underway to improve things:
A bill that would substantially reform the food safety program at the Food and Drug Administration edged a step closer to a vote on Wednesday during a markup session at the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Health. A companion measure is being considered in the Senate. Margaret A. Hamburg, the F.D.A. commissioner, said last week that she supported the legislation, although she had asked for some changes.
After the nightmare of the Bush administration, it’s about time government got back to performing basic public health and safety functions with renewed vigor. We shouldn’t even need to be doing this one-hundred years or so after Upton Sinclair published The Jungle, but that’s what neo-liberalism wrought.
by Jon DeVore — ,
by Lee — ,
Lots of medical marijuana news recently. Here’s a recap:
– Andy Hobbs writes in the Federal Way Mirror about the shortcomings of our state’s medical marijuana law along with the situation that patients and providers find themselves in as a result. There will be a part 2 posted later. UDPATE: Here’s part 2.
– The Tri-Cities Herald printed an interesting editorial suggesting that the way to solve Washington’s medical marijuana supply problems is to have the police supply patients with marijuana confiscated through drug raids. As Russ Belville points out, this is not a new idea, and it’s one that has been rejected by police agencies. It’s also not a very good idea in the first place. Medical marijuana patients should be getting marijuana that’s being grown by people who know what they’re doing, not from the police evidence locker where they can’t verify the age, purity, strain, etc.
The main obstacle to states establishing these kinds of distribution systems has been the federal government. That’s the reason why California’s loosely regulated system of dispensaries had been so loosely regulated. If a city or county documented a bunch of information about their operations, the DEA would simply obtain those records and shut down the operation. Any state that tried too hard to set up their own system put themselves in a position where the DEA and DOJ could quickly dismantle it.
But the entire dynamic may be changing. Attorney General Holder reiterated that the Obama Administration intends to respect state laws on medical marijuana, meaning that states should be free to establish their own systems for growing and distributing marijuana to patients without federal interference. New Mexico has been at the forefront of this, trying since 2007 to establish state authorized providers. Even with those reassurances from the Obama Administration, the initial state-authorized dispensary in Santa Fe was nervous about being named in news reports for fear that the DEA will move to shut them down.
– In Rhode Island this week, their state Senate voted 30-2 to legalize medical marijuana dispensaries. The answer to the dilemma raised in the Herald editorial is to move in the same direction as Rhode Island and New Mexico and establish more secure avenues for allowing medical marijuana patients to obtain their medicine from state-approved growers who grow specifically for patients. That the Rhode Island legislature can vote nearly unanimously to move in this direction while the Washington legislature is doing absolutely nothing about our clearly broken system just re-emphasizes the fact that we have a testicular deficiency in Olympia.
– UCLA-based anti-drug researcher Dr. Donald Tashkin now supports the legalization of marijuana. Tashkin is most well-known for conducting a study funded by the National Institute of Health, where he hypothesized that there’d be a definitive link between marijuana smoking and lung cancer, but discovered that there was “no association and even a suggestion of some protective effect”. Caren Woodson from Americans for Safe Access, a medical marijuana advocacy group in California, writes about some recent studies done on the use of marijuana for alleviating the pain associated with HIV/AIDS.
– Minnesota Governor Tim Pawlenty vetoed what would have been the most restrictive state medical marijuana law in the country. The legislature approved the bill after hearing some compelling testimony from patients and relatives. It’s been speculated that Pawlenty’s decision was made with an eye for a Presidential run in 2012, but it’s not entirely clear that vetoing the bill was the smarter move when nearly 3/4 of the American public supports medical marijuana laws. Instead, it may be a good indication of how detached the groupthink of the Republican leadership is from the reality of what the average American cares about.
– California dispensary operator Charles Lynch was sentenced to a year in prison. Many had hoped that since dispensary owners like Lynch are no longer being targeted under the Obama Administration that they’d support Judge George Wu’s request for leniency from the mandatory minimum sentencing restrictions.
by Goldy — ,
As Publicola reported yesterday, Dow Constantine went on the offensive in the King County Executive race (or at least as offensive as the mild-mannered councilman can get), insisting that the politically reclusive Susan Hutchison has “an obligation to voters” to explain her positions to voters.
Calling her “pleasant” but “far to the right of the electorate of King County,” Constantine said, “that’s fine, everybody has a right to their political opinions, but if you’re holding yourself out as a candidate for the highest office in King County, you have an obligation to voters to tell them where you stand.”
Constantine wanted to know where Hutchison stood on a women’s right to choose—which he said was a relevant issue for King County Executive because King County Health runs health clinics, like one in White Center, that counsel low-income women on pregnancy issues.
Not surprisingly, Hutchison took umbrage at Constantine citing her many conservative Republican bona fides, loudly complaining to the Seattle P-I’s Chris Grygiel:
“This is inexcusable. In sum total he’s accused me of being an extremist and I’m a moderate.”
But when asked what she would say to voters to demonstrate her self-proclaimed moderation, Hutchison demurred:
“I don’t have to say anything to the voters,” said Hutchison, a long-time local television personality. “They’ve known me for 20 years on the air. They’ve known me for another seven years as someone who has served in the community.”
Really, Susan? You’re running for countywide office… essentially the equivalent of being the governor of a small state… and you honestly believe that you don’t have to say anything to the voters? That’s your final answer?
On second thought, perhaps holing Hutchison up in an undisclosed location is in fact the best political strategy her Republican handlers can reasonably devise, considering the arrogant, haughty and uninformed candidate they’re working with.
by Jon DeVore — ,
The bidness guys ‘n gals are truly excited about potentially reducing health care costs that affect their bottom line. Well, not really.
The U.S. Chamber of Commerce said it will spend $100 million in an effort to stem the “rapidly growing influence of government over private-sector activity,” in a major new move by the powerful business group to counter the Obama administration’s regulatory agenda.
Because regulation would lead to horrible things like rationing, high overhead costs and bureaucracy, none of which exist in the current system. Most private insurance plans are simple, comprehensive and cover pre-existing conditions and specialist visits with little or no hassle.
Obama could come up with a proposal that costs them each one cent per year, drops manna from the skies and gives them eternal youth and three hour and fifty nine minute erections, and they would still hate him because manna represents “socialism.”
Tribes must stick together, no matter the little kiddies with teeth rotting out and old folks losing their houses after illnesses. Neo-liberalism may be dead as a doornail, but until the very serious people who destroyed the economy actually understand what has happened, which will be never, moving forward will be a slow slog.
You wouldn’t want to wind up with a crazy-quilt, nonsensical insurance system that places arbitrary hurdles in front of people, that would be terrible.
by Goldy — ,
The World Health Organization declared a swine flu pandemic today, raising the global H1N1 alert level to six, on a six-point scale. It’s been 41 years since the last pandemic, the Hong Kong flu, killed about a million people worldwide.
While WHO is urging people not to panic, emphasizing that the declaration represents the virus’s global spread, not it’s severity, DemFromCT (in a lengthy post on Daily Kos that is really worth the read) argues that we should take full advantage of this teaching moment:
While the media includes “don’t panic’ overtly or subtly in every message they put out, complacency is a bigger danger than panic, and the right thing to do is to keep talking about it and bore the hell out of everyone until it’s routine to wash your hands, cover your cough and stay home for seven days from onset (or 24 hours of no fever if longer than seven days) before you go back to work or send your kids out to infect everyone else. And if you think ahead, you’ll stock up on what you need to stay in the house for a week (or two) in case you’re too sick to go out.
Even if, as it appears at the moment, H1N1 proves no more severe than the typical seasonal flu, its novel make up gives it the potential to infect many more people. Seasonal flu typically kills between 250,000 and 500,000 people worldwide; if the number of flu cases were to double or triple, the number of fatalities would rise proportionately.
Wash your hands.
by Goldy — ,
by Goldy — ,
A while back, Will set up a Facebook group for Friends of the King County Fairy District, motto: “Making King County FIRST in mythical sprite-based transportation solutions.” Silly, but kinda funny.
Well today he gets an email from King County asking him to remove the county logo, as it’s for “official county use only.” Sheesh.
Will’s planning to comply, though personally I’d be more afraid of a midnight visit from Disney stormtroopers; the Mouse doesn’t take too kindly to folks tinkering with Tinker. But, well, whatever.
by Carl Ballard — ,
Last November we were told that changing to nonpartisan races in King County would be good for Democracy. So the filing deadline passed last week, and for the executive race there’s going to be some heated competition. But look at the situation in the rest of the King County races:
Sheriff Sue Rahr and County Councilmembers Bob Ferguson, Kathy Lambert, Julia Patterson and Pete von Reichbauer will be unopposed. Councilmember Reagan Dunn will face Party of Commons candidate Mark Greene and financial-services trainer Beverly Harison Tonda.
Woo, feel the white hot heat of competition. 1 race where there’s any contest at all, and I’ve never heard of Greene or Tonda (not saying they aren’t pillars of their community, but as a Seattle boy with North King County and Vashon roots, I don’t know anything about either of them). Now, in a year when none of the incumbents left, there wasn’t going to be a bumper crop of candidates. Still I think there are a few recent developments that heighten the power of incumbency:
We’re a 1 paper town now. As much as the blogs and weeklies and the online Pig’s Eye are picking up some slack, in many ways if the Times doesn’t cover a story, that story doesn’t happen. If you’re an aspiring candidate trying to break news that a lot of people are going to see, you have the TV, or the Times, and neither is probably going to be particularly good at in depth coverage of County Council races.
But more interesting to me, as a partisan hack is that the parties have less of a dog in these fights. Oh sure, we all know whose the Democrat in nonpartisan races and whose the Republican, and will long after the people elected with letters after their names have left office. Still, there’s less institutional incentive for the Republicans to find some suburban business person to take on Ferguson or for the Democrats to find someone to fight the good fight on the Eastside. For all the bashing of parties that we do here in Washington and in the West, they play a vital role in recruiting and supporting candidates, and I wish in King County we hadn’t decided to pretend otherwise.