HorsesAss.Org

Remember all those funny acronyms from last fall’s mainstream media coverage of the Roads and Transit campaign? YOE, for year of expenditure was a favorite of many of Seattle’s newspaper writers and columnists. They were fixated (examples here, here, and here) on slapping the Roads and Transit plan with as high a price tag as they could by including inflation into the total price tag of the plan, not just the price tag in current year dollars. By doing so, they held the Roads and Transit plan to a standard never before seen for a tax measure or capital construction program in our region.

Yesterday Dino Rossi released his transportation fantasy and said it would cost $15.5 billion in 2007 dollars. Keep in mind, that’s in last year’s dollars.

I have done a little bit of “back of the envelope” math (you know the kind that Rossi’s Republican, anti-light rail pals did when they fed the media their scary cost numbers on Prop 1) and the results I get are staggering. Rossi’s $15.5 billion plan, when you account for 4 percent annual inflation over a 30 year construction schedule, suddenly balloons to $50 billion dollars. And this doesn’t even include the interest on the bonds that would be needed to finance all of Rossi’s made up project cost estimates. So we would have to add all of the interest payments to the $50 billion number to get the true cost, well at least according to our friends in the “traditional media.”

You can do the math yourself with this handy little inflation calculator.

UPDATE [Lee]: This part from a post by Martin at the Seattle Transit Blog made me laugh:

So I looked to Dino Rossi’s Transportation Plan with hope and anticipation. I shouldn’t have. This document was first sent to me by a Gregoire operative; when your own campaign literature is being gleefully distributed by the other side, that’s a bad sign.

I haven’t yet had the time to study Dino Rossi’s newly unveiled transportation “plan,” but one element immediately leaped out at me:

Rossi proposed funding high-occupancy-vehicle projects on the Eastside by tapping Sound Transit money that would otherwise be used mainly to build a light-rail line from downtown Bellevue to Seattle.

Of course, such a proposal may have a certain appeal to Rossi’s anti-rail constituency, but if he really wants to be governor I suggest he put down those Discovery Institute and Washington Policy Center briefing papers, and take a little time reading the state Constitution:

ARTICLE XI, SECTION 12: ASSESSMENT AND COLLECTION OF TAXES IN MUNICIPALITIES.
The legislature shall have no power to impose taxes upon counties, cities, towns or other municipal corporations, or upon the inhabitants or property thereof, for county, city, town, or other municipal purposes, but may, by general laws, vest in the corporate authorities thereof, the power to assess and collect taxes for such purposes.

Um, see Dino, Sound Transit is a local government with local taxing authority, and the state simply cannot direct it how to use its revenue or its surplus. Local voters authorized ST to raise this money for a specific purpose, and only local voters can redirect these funds. Who is your legal adviser… Tim Eyman?

Promising to do something and having the legal authority to do something are two different things.

Hey local media… I haven’t seen much coverage yet of Reichert’s awful fundraising quarter. Um… FYI… he’s the incumbent.

Just thought you should know.

UPDATE:
As much as I hate to correct Postman — and in this case, I really, really, really hate to correct him — Reichert raised $331K for the quarter, not $240K. It’s confusing, because this time around Reichert reported the take from his Laura Bush funder using a separate joint committee, the way you’re supposed to… and who could possibly have anticipated that?

UPDATE, UPDATE:
Over on (u)SP my new friend Eric seems to get it: “8th CD Fundraising is Troublesome.” Well, it is if you’re Reichert.

The Seahawks regular season schedule is out:

Sun Sept. 7 at Buffalo Bills – 10:00 a.m.
Sun Sept. 14 San Francisco 49ers – 1:05 p.m.
Sun Sept. 21 St. Louis Rams – 1:05 p.m.
Sun Sept. 28 BYE
Sun Oct. 5 at N.Y. Giants – 10:05 a.m.
Sun Oct. 12 Green Bay Packers – 1:15 p.m.
Sun Oct. 19 at Tampa Bay Buccaneers – 5:15 p.m.
Sun Oct. 26 at San Francisco 49ers – 1:15 p.m.
Sun Nov. 2 Philadelphia Eagles – 1:15 p.m.
Sun Nov. 9 at Miami Dolphins – 10:00 a.m.
Sun Nov. 16 Arizona Cardinals – 1:05 p.m.
Sun Nov. 23 Washington Redskins – 1:15 p.m.
Thu Nov. 27 at Dallas Cowboys – 1:15 p.m. (Thanksgiving Day)
Sun Dec. 7 New England Patriots – 5:15 p.m.
Sun Dec. 14 at St. Louis Rams – 10:00 a.m.
Sun Dec. 21 N.Y. Jets – 1:05 p.m.
Sun Dec. 28 at Arizona Cardinals – 1:15 p.m.

The numbers are in, and they don’t look too good for Dave Reichert, with challenger Darcy Burner expanding her lead over “Congressman 401” in the much watched category of cash on hand. Reichert raised only $331,000 in the first quarter, compared to the impressive $517,000 hauled in by Burner, who now leads Reichert $922,000 to $698,000 in cash on hand.

And that’s with a fundraising visit from the First Lady. Pathetic.

Join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally for an evening of politics under the influence. We meet at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E, although some of us will show up a little early for dinner.

Tonight we will have double-header of theme songs by the Beatles: Birthday, in honor of Mr. Goldstein’s 45th and Tax Man, just to remind us of the $31,000 in deferred taxes we each owe on the $9.4 trillion dollar national debt. (Thanks kids and grandkids!)

If you find yourself in the Tri-Cities area this evening, check out McCranium for the local Drinking Liberally . Otherwise, check out the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter near you.

Howard Schultz, Starbucks CEO and former Sonics owner, plans to sue to reacquire the team:

Nearly two years after selling Seattle’s NBA franchise to Oklahoma City investors, the Starbucks mogul has hired a lawyer and is preparing to file a lawsuit against Sonics chairman Clay Bennett to rescind the July 2006 sale.

His lawyer, Richard Yarmuth:

“It’s not money damage. It’s to have the team returned. The theory of the suit is that when the team was sold, the Basketball Club of Seattle, our team here, relied on promises made by Clay Bennett and his ownership that they desired to keep the team in Seattle and intended to make a good-faith effort to accomplish that.”

Schultz got painted as the bad guy when hew sought big bucks for a new arena, and when rebuffed sold the team to a group from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma.

A lawsuit by Schultz, when combined with the City of Seattle’s lawsuit, could very well force the NBA to rethink their strategy. He was an energetic owner, but an inexperienced one. Maybe he can make common cause with the fans he once jilted, and save the team.

I turn 45-years-old today, and yeah, I know some of you righties might find it ironic that this “tax and spend” Democrat was born on the dreaded date of April 15th. (Trust me, I don’t much enjoy cutting the IRS a check either, but well, we all have to do our patriotic duty to help assure a military victory in Iraq, right?) And so to celebrate my birthday on a day most Americans associate with money, I’ve decided to use this opportunity to kickoff my Second Annual HA Pledge Week.

Last year, 106 readers blew past my $3,500 target, contributing $4,043.91 over a week in January, an amazing and gratifying show of support. But this year, with a huge hole in my income left from the loss of my 710-KIRO show, and big plans to build out and expand HA, I’m setting a more ambitious fundraising goal: $6,000 from 150 loyal readers.

That amounts to only a $40 average donation from about 5-percent of my current daily readership, and while I hope those of you who can afford to give more, do, I know some of you can afford less, so any amount is appreciated.

Of course, I can’t afford to live on only $6,000 a year, but there’s a method to my madness, and that’s why I need your support now. Over the coming months I plan to appeal to “big donors” to fund me and my HA expansion plans, and I need you to show them that you have my back, that you value the contribution I make to the public debate, and that you desperately want to see progressive media grow and flourish in Washington state. If you, my readers, collectively cut that first big check, more money will follow. But first, I need you to help me meet or exceed our 150 donor/$6,000 target.

So if HA has become a regular part of your daily routine, and you want to see it continue, let alone continue to grow and expand, please help me build Washington’s progressive media infrastructure by contributing today. And thank you all for your steadfast support.

The momentum continues to build for Democrat Darcy Burner in her race against Republican incumbent Dave Reichert in Washington State’s 8th Congressional District, as she announced today that she raised $516,740 between January and March, a total that likely places among the top five challengers nationwide, and first in the Western states.

“Our record-setting fundraising demonstrates that voters in the 8th District are hungry for more effective representation in tackling the growing list of problems we face as a country, from the endless and costly war in Iraq, to our faltering economy, to the skyrocketing cost of health care,” Burner said. “Our message is already resonating, and this fall we will have the resources we need to make our case for positive change to the voting public.”

This new filing will bring Burner’s totals to $1,374,866 raised over the election cycle, with $921,615 cash on hand. Since declaring her candidacy, Burner has outraised Reichert in three consecutive quarters… and I’m guessing this will make a fourth. And when you dig into the numbers there’s even more bad news for Reichert:

The vast bulk of Burner’s fundraising has come from individuals rather than PACs or political party committees – about $456,500 this quarter, or more than 88 percent of the total raised. Burner received 4,859 contributions from 4,416 individuals in the first quarter. Burner has received 11,615 contributions from 8,817 donors who have given over the course of the current campaign.

That’s only an average of about $156 per donor, leaving Burner plenty of opportunity to reach out to her astoundingly large donor base for more contributions, whereas Reichert has thus far relied on large donations and PAC money to even come close to keeping pace. Ain’t much upside from a double-max donation.

Can’t wait to see Reichert’s numbers.

Not everybody is on board with the whole “Seeds of Compassion” thing:

Several hundred protesters chanted and sang, marching from the University of Washington’s Red Square to Hec Edmundson Pavilion today in the biggest demonstration here yet against the Dalai Lama’s five-day Seattle tour.

A plane also flew overhead trailing a banner that read: “Dalai: ur smiles charm, ur actions harm.”

Protesting the Dalai Lama? Really?

Once outside Hec Ed, the protesters showed violent images from Tibet on a large-screen TV, chanted through bullhorns and sang songs in Mandarin, including one that protesters translated as “My Chinese heart,” saying that their hearts still belong to China even though they are far from home.

I’m sure my great grandfather Wilhelm Kamp’s heart still belonged his home country of Germany (and his hometown of Leverkusen). But events have a way of clarifying one’s national allegiances.

Protester Shufu Xe, a systems analyst at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, said the Dalai Lama’s message has been distorted by the Western media.

“I like some of his ideas about nonviolence. But I think he is behind some of the violence in Tibet,” Xe said. “I don’t like that he’s using the Olympics to promote his political agenda.”

Xe, like many of the protesters, was born in China. He moved to the U.S. seven years ago.

I don’t mean to get all “nativist,” but if they protested the Chinese government in China, they’d never be heard from again. Remember the “Tank Man”?

I think it’s cool that people can live in America and say their “heart” is somewhere else AND use their rights in this country to air their grievances. It’s weird, but uniquely American.

Real estate salesman Dino Rossi will introduce his transportation plan Tuesday morning, and I can’t help but wonder what it might include. More freeways and wider bridges? Foot-ferries and monorails? An utterly fucking ridiculous deep bore tunnel? Well one thing I’m pretty damn sure it won’t include are HOV lanes, because as he told KUOW’s Ross Reynolds back in January of 2003, Rossi doesn’t believe in rewarding drivers for (gasp) carpooling.

[audio:http://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/rossi_hov_2003-1-8.mp3]

REYNOLDS: Wouldn’t opening up the HOV lanes during the middle of the day make it harder for those who have voluntarily decided to carpool or those who’ve decided to ride buses – those who some would argue are being good citizens by not driving on the highways – wouldn’t it make it harder for them to get to their destinations when some would argue they should be rewarded with a single lane that they can use exclusively during that part of the day?

ROSSI: Well, you’re absolutely right that there are tie-ups in the middle of the day and much of that is because there are car accidents during the middle of the day, and the whole point of spacing these cars further – improving the capacity on state 405 – would probably relieve a number of those congestion problems, because people wouldn’t be getting hurt and getting in car accidents. Picking people and rewarding them for what you believe or others believe is the proper way to commute I don’t believe is the right method.

There you have it… transportation expert Dino Rossi pinpoints our congestion problem on too many car accidents! So why hasn’t Gov. Gregoire done anything about that, huh?! (I bet it’s because she’s in the pocket of Olympia’s powerful car accident lobby.)

As for carpool lanes, who needs ’em? After all, according to WSDOT, they only “move approximately one third of the people on the freeways in only 18 percent of the vehicles, and carry approximately 52 percent more people per lane than other freeway lanes during prime commuting hours.” And while a 2004 survey showed that 96% of Puget Sound drivers use HOV lanes, and an overwhelming majority consider them a good idea, convenient, and a fair use of taxpayer money… well… I suppose Rossi and his advisers at the Discovery Institute simply know better than us common folk.

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) inserted a provision in last year’s energy bill that gave the Federal Trade Commission the authority to investigate manipulation of the petroleum market, and now with gasoline expected to top $4 a gallon this summer, Cantwell wants the FTC to use it.

“Their response has been tepid,” Cantwell said in an interview. […] She said she expected the agency would “run out the clock” and leave the manipulation regulations for the next administration to write and implement.

“They didn’t ask for the authority and they’ve never been excited about it,” Cantwell said. “They say they want to work with us. Given the impact on the economy, they need to get started.”

Now I know you knee-jerk free-marketeers will tell me that this is merely the market in action, and that the invisible hand of God will sort everything out just fine as long as we don’t let those damn government regulators interfere. But with crude oil now hovering around $110 a barrel, the supposedly inviolable law of supply and demand appears to have been magically suspended:

Cantwell noted that crude oil prices have doubled over the past year despite adequate inventories, no major disruption in supply and a slight drop in demand in the United States as the economy has cooled.

At congressional hearings over the past several weeks, oil company executives and market analysts have been at a loss to explain the sharp increase in crude oil prices. Cantwell said an Exxon Mobil executive recently told a House of Representatives committee that he thought the price of crude oil should be about $50 to $55 a barrel, given current supply and demand.

It was Cantwell who also authored a law that banned manipulation of the natural gas and electricity markets, and ordered the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to enforce it. Subsequent investigations have resulted in 15 settlements and nearly a half billion dollars in fines. I’d wager the FTC would find similar manipulations in the petroleum market… that is, if it ever bothered to follow the law.

Hey, it turns out US Sen. Jim Bunning is not, in fact, the nuttiest politician in Kentucky. Saturday night, at KY-04’s annual Lincoln Day Dinner, the appropriately named US Rep. Geoff Davis (R-1960) displayed that famous Southern charm, saying of Sen. Barack Obama:

“I’m going to tell you something: That boy’s finger does not need to be on the button,”

And that cracker’s lily white ass doesn’t need to be in the US House.