HorsesAss.Org

In defending their opposition to SB 6385, the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, several Democratic representatives have been responding to constituents with BIAW talking points, but by far the most transparently silly is this line of defense, which has been put forward in one form or another by multiple legislators:

A law passed by the legislature years ago to protect condominium owners had an unintended consequence of creating an “insurance crisis.” Because insurance for building condominiums was not available, the town center of Mercer Island has 400 plus apartments!

During the last five years, the legislature, through passage of “Cure,” “Affirmative Defense” and “Condominium Act” reform, began the process of bringing back predictability to the contractor insurance market that had been damaged from earlier Legislation. This was in response to the lack of insurance available to builders–especially condo builders.

SB 6385 would undo all that has been gained and would force medium and small contractors out of business because they would not be able to obtain third-party warranties and general liability insurance. At the very least, the cost of housing would dramatically increase for all new homebuyers.

Forget for a moment that this “insurance crisis” was created by damage claims arising from crappy construction, and that if builders and insurers had wanted to avert this crisis they could have implemented a construction inspection program instead of waiting for the Legislature to mandate one. And disregard the fact that SB 6385 merely gives single family homebuyers the same protections currently granted condo buyers today, including those reforms of the last five years, so the bill doesn’t actually “undo” anything.

Forget all that. Let’s just assume for the sake of argument that the statements above are irrefutable fact, and if so… wouldn’t that imply that Speaker Frank Chopp and the other conscientious defenders of affordable housing should be working their asses off to repeal the condo warranties? Don’t condo developers deserve the same immunity from lawsuits currently enjoyed by developers of single family homes? Isn’t anybody going to protect our state’s vulnerable builders from the predatory practices of their own customers? Mercer Island already has (gasp) “400 plus apartments” for God’s sake… when will this savagery end?

You see where I’m going.

Unlike others, I don’t entirely blame the Eastside Democrats who are doing the BIAW’s dirty work; they either believe the talking points they spew, or they’ve made the shrewd political calculation that this is what they need to do to hold office in their swing districts. (Or, perhaps, some combination of the two.) But the Dems don’t need their votes to pass this bill in the House, so in the end, it all comes down to Speaker Chopp. So what is it Frank…? Who deserves your protection more, homebuyers or condo builders? Because if you’re gonna stand by and quietly watch your members repeat BIAW bullshit like this, you are laying the groundwork for the latter.

Once again, a local professional sports team’s threats to move the franchise are resulting in lawmakers flouting their own rules (and, oh, yeah, the desires of a vast majority of their constituents) in order to throw public money at a project which will primarily serve to benefit team owners. And once again, local TV, radio, and newspapers are breathlessly fawning over the proposal, without bothering to note that said media outlets have a tremendous financial interest in the success of the proposal. So sliced bread has nothing on this latest unique, once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to Save “Our” Sonics.

Sigh.

It’s not the fault of the Sonics’ current owners, of course, that we’ve been down this road so many times now, with Safeco Field, Qwest Field, Key Arena, and the Bank of America Arena (which is at least owned by a public entity, UW, and whose renovation was mostly paid for by private donors). The financings of Safeco and Qwest in particular were ugly affairs in which the clear will of local voters was defied by politicians in order to accommodate team owners. So you’ll forgive folks a bit of “here-we-go-again” knee-jerk hatred for yet another fleecing, again joyously celebrated by willfully tone-deaf local media.

I actually think the proposal on the table now from four local billionaires to renovate Key Arena with $150 million of their own money, matched by $75 million each from the city and state, is about as good a proposal (and therefore about as reasonable a compromise) as one could hope for, given that the economics of modern pro sports now rely on the public to build teams’ playpens, and there’s always another sucker (in this case, Oklahoma City; previously, the Mariners were heading to Tampa Bay, the Seahawks to Southern California) willing to pay the price. In any other circumstances, this deal would work.

But there’ always a context, and this is a specific proposal, not an abstraction. As such, there are still three major problems we’re not hearing about from our sycophantic local media.

First is that the proposal’s success relies on current Sonics owner Clay Bennett selling the team to our local guys. Bennett has been telling anyone and everyone, consistently since day one, that he has no interest in selling the team. So the whole exercise is unlikely to result in “saving” the Sonics. Moreover, NBA commissioner David Stern, who has a lot to say about the matter, has warned that if the Sonics leave, Seattle won’t get another team.

The proposal is set up to meet the restrictions of (overwhelmingly voter-approved) I-91, which requires that the city at least break even on any arena improvement deal. So the public’s $150 million is to go to overall improvements to the arena, things that will also help with concerts, exhibitions, and the like, while the private $150 million is supposedly the only part dedicated wholly to pro basketball amenities like locker rooms and luxury suites. But that’s a game, of course; this is all about the Sonics. Nobody’s demanding $150 million in improvements so that the public can enjoy rock concerts in greater comfort. Given that, what we’re talking about is an extremely expensive public investment in appeasing a team that’s likely to move anyway. That’s one minor problem.

The second is that even if this were an ideal proposal (i.e., one with a chance of accomplishing its stated goal), the process is awful. By coming to the state legislature for $75 million six working days before the end of the session, boosters are essentially asking lawmakers to ignore all legal procedures and drop all state business in the remaining week in order to consider a very local problem: the “blight” that results if Key Arena were to lose 41 basketball games a year (some of which would be replaced by concerts that now can’t be booked). To use the appropriate analogy, it’s as if a coach whose team is losing badly midway through the fourth quarter suddenly insisted on throwing out the results, starting the score at 0-0, and if his team is still losing at the end of the game, continuing to play (a special session) until they win.

Each legislative session, a couple thousand bills are proposed, most of which fail — not because they’re bad bills, but because the session’s limited time forces politicians to prioritize. The Sonics proposal wants to skip the committee approvals, the public hearings, the deadlines, all the normal hoops bills must jump through, for what in the greater scheme of things is a pretty low state priority.

Lastly, there’s the local $75 million, which Mayor Greg Nickels has already generously pledged. Aside from the fact that it’s supposed to be the city council, not the mayor, who makes city spending decisions, isn’t this the same Greg Nickels who not a month ago wasn’t paying assistance to dislocated renters because there was no money for it? And now he’s magically found $75 million for a bunch of wealthy Oklahoma businessmen, for a proposal whose local economic benefits would be negligible even if it were successful in saving the team? Which it probably won’t be?

There’s a word for this whole process. And it’s not “generous.”

Yeah, Sen. Barack Obama won the Wyoming Democratic caucus yesterday by a twenty-plus point margin, but his bigger victory came in Illinois, where he won a proxy war with Sen. John McCain in the special election to replace former House Speaker Dennis Hastert. Obama cut an ad on behalf of Democrat Bill Foster while McCain personally campaigned with Republican Jim Oberweis. Foster won by a comfortable 53% to 47% margin in a traditionally Republican district in which President Bush garnered 55% of the vote in 2004, and that hadn’t elected a Democrat since the 1970’s. Those who have argued Obama would have long coattails in November are surely cheered by the results.

But yesterday’s special election has deeper implications that have Republicans worried nationwide, possibly presaging a second Big Blue Wave that could potentially reshape congressional politics for a decade or more:

The defeat — whether or not there are national implications — is a major setback for the NRCC and House Republicans. The NRCC spent nearly $1.3 million defending the seat, a significant percentage of the $6.4 million the committee showed on hand at the end of January. That is a major investment of limited resources — only to come up empty.

House Republicans, already dispirited by the loss of their majority in the 2006 election and more than two dozen retirements within their ranks since then, will likely take this defeat hard. Watch to see whether a rash of retirements breaks out over the coming weeks as vulnerable members take the Illinois special election as a sign of things to come in the fall.

Party identity sticks hard, but we may be in the midst of the type of large scale partisan realignment we haven’t seen since the Democrats lost the South in the 1960’s. In 2006 Northeastern Republicans were virtually eradicated from the congressional map, and 2008 is shaping up to do the same in the Midwest. What this means for Washington’s most vulnerable Republican, Rep. Dave Reichert, remains unclear, but… well… it can’t look good from his perspective. Twice now Reichert has been bailed out by multi-million dollar NRCC expenditures in a district that used to pump money into the party under Rep. Jennifer Dunn instead of sucking money out; with an unprecedented number of open seats to defend and a staggering cash disadvantage, the NRCC is going to have to make some tough choices about where they invest their resources.

With so many other fires to fight this cycle, does it make sense for the party to continue to prop up a perpetually needy Reichert? Or, would they be better off protecting stronger incumbents elsewhere, and then coming back with an energetic Reagan Dunn against a freshman Rep. Darcy Burner in 2010, a cycle in which Democrats are due an electoral backlash? I know conventional wisdom dictates that a party’s first priority is to defend the seats they hold, but if Burner is as much of a lightweight as Republicans claim they believe her to be, a 2010 strategy could prove politically savvy. And besides, desperate times call for desperate measures, and the NRCC simply may not have the option of continuing to throw good money after bad.

Regardless of the nominee at the top of the ticket Democrats are poised to make substantial gains in both houses of Congress. How big and lasting those gains are remains to be seen, but either way, shifting demographics and party alignment don’t bode well for the GOP in WA-08.

Rep. Steve King (R-Cowardstowne) is fucking insane! (via Crooks and Liars):

(Other media clips from the past week in politics are posted at Hominid Views.)

No doubt my friends in the establishment press are looking forward to a bitter and divisive brawl between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton all the way up to the Democratic National Convention, but the truth is that even at its nastiest, the 2008 presidential nominating process has thus far been an extraordinarily civil war compared to previous campaigns. Still, while the candidates have mostly managed to stay out of the muck, their partisan supporters in the blogosphere are now poised to march into combat rakes in hand, the posts and comment threads of many of our leading blogs serving as battlefields in an increasingly bloody war of words.

To which I caution my comrades in the progressive netroots… who the hell cares?

There isn’t a nickel’s difference between Obama and Clinton on most policy issues, at least not substantive enough that it can’t be overcome by a commanding congressional majority, and both candidates arguably occupy the same center/center-left ideological niche. We may prefer one candidate’s health care plan over the other, or one candidate’s historical record on the occupation of Iraq, but both Obama and Clinton largely share the same agenda, and either would be far preferable to the Republican alternative. But most important to movement progressives like me, while both are good Democrats, and both have clear paths toward victory in November, neither is exactly what we would call a “netroots candidate,” and thus neither deserves the sort of unrelenting partisan passion that now threatens to distract our ranks, if not actually split them.

I personally like Clinton, and believe she has the makings of an excellent president… but isn’t she an icon of the very Democratic establishment we are all working so hard to challenge? And I do find Obama genuinely inspiring, and believe he may be able to deliver the kind of personal leadership we desperately need at this unique moment in our nation’s history, but… as phenomenally successful as his grassroots efforts have been both on- and offline, hasn’t he merely borrowed the techniques and technology of the netroots while showing little if any interest in growing our movement or building our institutions outside the narrow interests of his own campaign?

Both candidates have raised staggering amounts of money online and harnessed the power of the Internet in ways barely imagined just a few years before, and we should all be greatly encouraged by this shifting political paradigm. But Obama and Clinton’s Internet strategies have had little more to do with the progressive netroots than the surprising online success of Ron Paul. They are not, and never have been our candidates; they are merely the last two standing.

Nor should we have had any reasonable expectation of nominating a netroots Democrat in 2008, at such an early stage in a movement that will take at least another decade or two to reach full fruition. The presidential contest is necessarily the race on which we have the least influence and the least impact, and regardless of who wins, the White House is the office to which we will surely have the least direct access. As this campaign unfolds the blogosphere will play an increasingly critical role in helping to shift media coverage and shape the public debate, but the decisions of a handful of campaign strategists will be far more decisive in determining the outcome of the presidential race than we can ever hope to be in this particular cycle. The netroots are surely a force to be reckoned with — but in the context of presidential politics that sentiment is best conjugated in the future indicative.

It is hard not to get caught up in the hopes and passions of the race for the White House, but bloggers and other netroots activists must not get distracted from the long, hard task of building the infrastructure that will make a true “netroots president” a realistic objective. That candidate will come from the ranks of the House or the Senate or from a governor’s mansion, and that candidate must be someone who doesn’t just share our values, but who has also shared our burden in building a new progressive movement from the ground up. That candidate may be one of the dozens we are now working to elect this cycle, but we will never find out if we don’t succeed in putting them in an office where they have the opportunity to establish their credentials on a national stage, while working with us to build toward the future.

It is not that the choice between Obama and Clinton isn’t important, it is just that as bloggers we cannot afford to allow this drawn out nomination process to distract us from the House, Senate, gubernatorial and other local races where we can truly make a difference. These true netroots candidates can’t wait until the end of August for us to refocus our attention; they need our energy, our creativity and our financial resources now. Neither Obama nor Clinton can secure enough pledged delegates to seal the nomination, and so for better or worse, the decision is now in the hands of the party establishment. Let them deal with it, while we keep our eye on the prize of gradually and relentlessly transforming the party itself.

Hillary Clinton “Nut Cracker Doll” shuts down Capitol building:

Andrew writes that state House Speaker Frank Chopp is “wavering” on the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights, but really, I don’t see it. Chopp has been the sole legislative obstacle to this reasonable reform these past two years, and I don’t see him wavering one way or the other. And if Speaker Chopp once again refuses to let the bill to the floor for a vote — a vote it would win by overwhelming margins — then I think it is time for Frank to be frank.

Chopp told KOMO TV that “I’ve listened to quite a number of stakeholders on this who have not had the opportunity to participate in this particular bill,” but there’s only one “stakeholder” Chopp seems to be concerned with, and that is the BIAW. Now, I don’t know if Chopp is simply afraid of the BIAW, or if he’s worked out some kind of a deal with them in which he’s promised not to pass the bill, but that’s the only reasonable explanation for Chopp’s intransigence on a bill that merely gives buyers of single family homes the same rights condo owners have enjoyed since 1990. I can sue my doctor… I can sue my lawyer… I can sue my auto mechanic or even my barber… but I can’t sue a contractor for refusing to fix shoddy materials or workmanship in a brand new house. What’s up with that?

No doubt as Speaker, Chopp needs to think strategically, and the BIAW can be a powerful foe. Chopp deserves credit for building and maintaining a Democratic majority in the House, and I don’t doubt his personal values as a true progressive. But when he’s so clearly caving to the BIAW on such an uncontroversial scrap of necessary consumer protection, one has to wonder if Chopp’s focus on building a majority is getting in the way of his willingness to use it?

Chopp has until 5PM today to give SB 6385 a vote before it’s dead for the session, and he needs a reminder that there are more of us than there are of them. Call the legislative hotline at 800-562-6000 and urge your reps to tell Chopp to give the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights a vote, or link on over to Fuse and use their form to send Chopp an email. [UPDATE: You might also want to call Chopp’s office at 360-786-7920 and give him the mesage directly.]

Don’t let the right-wing militia funding orca killers at the BIAW win because we’re too lazy to speak out.

Lots of people, myself included, thought that Gov. Gregoire would oppose Sound Transit going back to voters in ’08 if the Roads and Transit measure failed. We didn’t think Democrats would want to share the ballot with a big transportation measure.

Turns out I was wrong.

Gregoire has signaled that a ballot measure this fall has her OK, even if she has reservations about the area interest groups’ willingness to “saddle-up” for another campaign. Sound Transit chair Greg Nickels isn’t standing in the way, either. He’s cajoling his fellow board member to vote for a revised ST2 package, one that ditches light rail to Tacoma and puts that money into going east and north. It’s the kind of package that is aimed at the areas that vote “yes” on transit. It’s a good rebound package, something that could pass, on it’s own, this fall. Just when transit fans are stepping on the gas, some are riding the brake.

Namely, Ron Sims.

Yeah, that Ron Sims, the same Ron Sims who pledged, in ’07, that he’d fight to put a better transit-only package on the ballot this fall:

Is he willing to lead the fight and come back next year with a revised light rail package?

The answer was an unequivocal yes. “I’m into that. I’m back. I’m fully engaged. No question,” he said. “I don’t believe in letting waters stagnate. I want to come back with a package that reduces our impact on global warming that is less expensive. Yes. Light rail is a big part of that package. I will spend a lot of time and political capital on that.”

But Ron is willing to let the waters stagnate.

The most depressing thing is that he used to be one of Sound Transit’s biggest defenders. But ever since Sims left the post of Sound Transit chair, he’s shown his disdain for any public transportation investment that isn’t controlled by his office. Instead of light rail, Sims advocated for buses (or bus rapid transit). He even preempted Sound Transit’s bid for the ballot with a measure of his own.

“Transit Now,” an expansion of bus service paid for by a sales tax hike, took the place of light rail on the 2006 ballot. Like the dumbass liberal that I am, I voted for it, all the time thinking that this was just Sims’ opening salvo of transportation investment. It wasn’t, which makes Sims’ ’07 comments on light rail all the more vexing.

**********

The local blogosphere cut it’s teeth on the 2004 election battle, and a year later Goldy used the new medium to destroy the candidacy of Ron Sims’ opponent. I remember sitting in the audience as Ron debated Ken Hutcherson on the issue of gay marriage, and I was amazed at how Sims took him apart in a most dignified manner. When Sims, the bloggers, and the Stranger writers all went out for drinks afterwards, Ron put his arm around me and recalled specific blog posts I had written. The guy cared, and he impressed me in a way other local pols didn’t.

**********

As quoted in Erica’s great article about the board’s deliberations, several members are still undecided:

Opinion on the Eastside is reportedly more divided, with several representatives waiting to make up their minds. Redmond Mayor John Marchione, who took his seat on the Sound Transit board just two weeks ago, says he’s been busy “talking to other board members and constituents” about their concerns with the proposal. “I’m very cognizant of the economy and what it might do this year—bad economies don’t produce positive votes on tax increases.” Marchione says he’s “disappointed that light rail doesn’t reach all the way to Microsoft,” but adds, “it might be a political necessity. People want to build this system in smaller bites and they want to see some success” before moving forward. Fred Butler, the deputy council president of Issaquah, meanwhile, says he’s “not really prepared to say one way or another,” although if pressured, “I’d probably say I lean just a little bit more toward 2008. But I have certainly not made up my mind and probably will not do so until I have to, in late March.”

No plan is perfect. In fact, one board member’s perfect plan is somebody else’s nightmare. Light rail won’t get to Redmond without getting across the lake first. Light rail won’t get to Everett without going to Northgate (and 145th St) first. I understand guys like Marchione and Butler. They’re looking out for their constituents, but Sound Transit has a regional mission.

Larry Phillips, from the Stranger’s story:

The only outliers among the King County delegation are reportedly King County Council Member Julia Patterson (who did not return a call for comment) and King County Executive Ron Sims, who has not been attending Sound Transit meetings. “He’s waiting for the perfect plan,” Phillips says derisively. Sims did not return a call for comment.

It was Ron himself who once said:

“You cannot tell people sitting in congestion that we’ll have another year of planning”

Time will tell if this is one more thing Ron has changed his mind about.

To the assholes who keep dumping trash in my yard waste and recycling bins… I mean… what the fuck? Do you come from some socialist dystopia where there is no such thing as private trash, and all bins are property of the people? And can you read? These bins are clearly marked “Yard Waste” and “Recycling” — you gotta know that when you dump a dirty diaper or a water-logged scrap of carpet remnant or the remains of your taco truck lunch in my yard waste bin, that I’m going to have to clean it out and put it in my trash can. If you’re gonna be such an incredibly inconsiderate fuck, why not just go all the way to inconsiderate fuckdom, and just dump your trash straight on my goddamn sidewalk?

To the assholes who keep dumping bags of trash on my goddamn sidewalk… well Jesus Fucking Christ! You’re neat enough to actually bag your trash, but then you just dump the bag on my sidewalk? I repeat… what the fuck? Who the hell just pulls up their car and says to themselves, “Gee, this sidewalk here, in front of this house… this looks like the right place to leave my neatly bagged garbage”…? And why the goddamn sidewalk? After all, there’s both a recycling and a yard waste bin just paces away, not to mention my actual trash can, which, for some reason, it never occurs to any of you assholes to commandeer. Sure, it’s incredibly fucking rude to dump your trash in somebody else’s trash can, but at least then I wouldn’t have to pick it up and put it in there myself, since the only trash the city hauls away is the stuff that’s actually in a proper can, and pulled up to the curb.

To the assholes who keep parking in front of my bins on trash day… goddamnit! Trash cans and recycling (or yard waste) bins are lining the streets for miles around, because, you know, it’s trash day, and the haulers only empty those cans that are placed by the curb. And you have to choose my cans to park your fucking truck in front of? Are you fucking oblivious, or do you simply just not care? So occasionally, after my trash hasn’t been picked up for weeks, I get desperate and put my bins in the street, and what do you do…? You put them back on the goddamn sidewalk so that you can park in front of them in that goddamn spot! Fuck you! And to the particular asshole with the beater van who when I specifically asked you not to park in front of my bins so that my trash might actually be picked up that day, you haughtily informed me that I’m supposed to put my bins at the end of my driveway… look around Peabody: I don’t have a fucking driveway! I don’t have a fucking garage! That’s why my bins are always in reach of goddamn fucking inconsiderate assholes like you, who obviously can’t be bothered to give a shit about anybody but yourselves.

I’m just sayin’.

ADDENDUM:
To the skanky Rainier Ave. whores who have chosen my corner as the perfect place to park with their Johns… it’s good to see you being so conscientious in your use of condoms. Thank you for being so responsible. But could you please toss your jizz filled love socks and smegma smeared wads of paper towel out the window into the middle of the street instead of onto my goddamn sidewalk?!

The 5PM Friday deadline is fast approaching, and so far no word from state House Speaker Frank Chopp as to whether he plans to let the Homeowner’s Bill of Rights come to the floor for a vote. If he does, it will surely pass by wide margins, giving owners of single family homes the same rights condo owners have had since 1990. If he doesn’t, than unfortunate homeowners like Scott Thalhamer will remain mired knee-deep in muck in the basement of his one-year-old home, barred by law from suing contractors for shoddy workmanship and code violations.

Even the Seattle Times agrees that this bill provides “reasonable protections,” yet according to KOMO-TV, one man stands in the way: Speaker Frank Chopp. Watch the video and see for your self, then dial the legislative hotline at 800-562-6000 and ask your representatives to ask Frank to let them vote on SB 6385.

I’m filling in for Dave Ross this morning on News/Talk 710-KIRO. Here’s how the show is shaping up thus far:

9AM: If it’s not Boeing, is Congress not going?
With Rep. Norm Dicks blaming Boeing’s tanker deal loss on last minute criteria changes, and House Appropriations chair John Murtha suggesting that he is considering legislation to hold up the contract, the controversy only gets hotter. Rep. Jim McDermott joins us at the top of the hour to give us the lowdown on the latest developments. Does outsourcing this contract represent a national security concern, or just an economic one? And if it’s the latter, is that reason enough to hold up a defense contract?

9:30AM: Will the Dems get a do-over in FL and MI?
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean is urging Florida and Michigan party officials to repeat their presidential primaries, a possibility that seems increasingly likely now that it is clear that neither Barack Obama or Hillary Clinton can garner enough pledged delegates to clinch the nomination prior to the convention. Also… an exploration of the “cult” of Obama.

10AM: Do “house daddies” make for happier marriages?
Men are helping out more at home, and studies suggest that this trend may result in healthier, happier marriages. Um… it didn’t work so well for this divorced, former house daddy, but then, maybe an SOB like me isn’t exactly the best control subject?

11AM: Dueling headlines… what’s really up in our local housing market?
The Seattle P-I today cheerily tells us that the housing market is “perking up,” while the Seattle Times blearily bemoans our housing “slump.” Local real-estate blogger Timothy Ellis of “Seattle Bubble” joins us to help straighten things out.

Tune in this morning (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

[via Balloon Juice]

Podcasting Liberally returns with another brilliant evening of conversation recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. This week me (Goldy), Will, Carl, Jenny Jennie and McKenna provide live coverage of Hillary Clinton’s big win in "Crucial Tuesday" primary… or maybe it was her big loss. Listen in and figure it out for yourself.

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_march_4_2008.mp3]

The show is 41:54, and can be downloaded here as a 38.4 MB MP3.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Darryl for producing the show, and Confab creators Gavin and Richard for hosting this site.]