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Today’s headlines are so lame — the “breaking news” has to do with the bus tunnel reopening — that I thought it would be more interesting to project a few headlines for 2008 that you probably won’t read anywhere else. After all, murderous rampages, even when they happen, or perhaps especially when they happen, on Christmas Eve, have become so commonplace it’s impossible to find something compelling to say any more. I can only breathe a sigh of relief that the story broke today instead of yesterday, when its pairing with the P-I expose of lunatic unlicensed bicyclists riding amok on city streets would have been a thorny call for the Page 1 editor as to which got the banner head. In other transportation news, the streetcar has stalled twice (something my bike has never done, but then it didn’t cost $52 million) and wait, this just in, OMG, snow is forecast for the region!

So now for the 2008 Roundup. We’ll start with the local headlines:

Overbuilding Crisis: Can It Happen Here? As more hi-rises and condos and townhouses continue to get built while the ones already on the market sit unsold, alert local media sense “excess inventory” in the housing market. Not wishing to offend real-estate advertisers, however, they cast the meltdown in upbeat, forward-looking platitudes like “brief lull,” “fleeting aberration” and “not as bad as Florida.”

Richard Conlin to Run for Mayor. Someone who actually practices sustainability to take on someone who just preaches it.

Streetcar, Metro Bus Collide, Injuring Both Passengers.

Oklahoma City Bans Sonics. Says it desires professional basketball team.

7.7 Quake Levels Viaduct. God weighs in on surface-street option.

Transit Measure Defeated at Polls. By a ___ to ___ margin, voters have turned down a ____________-___________ plan, costing ________ billion, to be built from ___________ to ____________ by the year _____ in order to solve the region’s growing, critical, urgent, yikes-we’re-all-doomed transportation crisis.

And now for the national headlines:

In Replay of Great Depression, Stock Market Crashes and Banks Collapse. Bush remains upbeat about economy, calls mass suicides on Wall Street “misoverreaction.”

Bush to Seek Third Term. Attorney General, citing loophole in law, says president can run if he changes his legal name.

Bush Bombs Iran. President declares martial law “to protect the safety of our country.”

Suspected Terrorist Plot Disclosed. President declares martial law “to protect the safety of our country.”

Republicans Score Landslide Win After Osama Bin Laden Brought Into Custody on Nov. 1. Faced with riots by angry voters, President declares martial law “to protect the safety of our country.”

License that man!!!

The P-I writes:

Motorists help pay for roads with gas taxes, tolls and license tabs. Boaters subsidize maritime programs with vessel registration and boat launch fees.

Maybe bicyclists, too, should pitch in for the costs of their trails and lanes.

It’s a suggestion — sometimes born of sincerity, other times of snarkiness — that drivers, tax-weary citizens and others make whenever politicians and cycling advocates talk about investing public money into cycling facilities. Some raised the idea again in recent weeks after the Seattle City Council and Mayor Greg Nickels endorsed a $240 million, 10-year plan for new bike lanes and street upgrades.

I read the story and the “comments” section at the end of the story (“Sound Off” is what it’s called), and the kinds of people who want to register bikes are the kind of people who hate cyclists. I hate some cyclists, but I also hate some drivers as well. It’s all about equal opportunity.

But cycling saves taxpayers money. If large numbers of people switched from SOVs to bikes, we would all save money on road maintenance. The mayor’s ten year cycling plan is cheap as shit compared to any other transportation investment.

Josh Feit writes:

I’m not sure where I stand on the idea of making bikers register. My gut tells me it’s not as simple as angry car owners make it out to be. Car owners gripe that they pay for roads through car fees, so why shouldn’t bikers help fund roads and bike lanes and bike trails?

Well, actually car owners pay for roads mostly through gas taxes, not car fees.

And here’s the real rub: Car owners are the ones who use and batter roads and cause congestion and emissions—all things that spike the cost of living for all of us.

Meanwhile, bikes save us all money—lowering congestion, easing emissions, and barely leaving any wear and tear on roads. So, why should government put up a barrier to getting more people on bikes?

Josh and the gang may not know where Federal Way is, but he’s dead on here.

Side note:

One night after doing the last hour of “The David Goldstein Show,” Goldy was giving me a ride home to Belltown. Underneath the Monorail tracks, 5th Avenue is divided in half, with the center of the street obstructed by the columns. Each half of the one-way street has (I believe) one traffic lane and one parking lane. Me and Goldy were on the left side of the pillars, and as we passed a car going much slower on the right side, I pointed the sight to Goldy:

Me: “Hey look, bicyclists, two abreast, blocking the whole lane.”

Goldy: “Fucking assholes. That’s why people hate cyclists.”

BTW, the cyclists were dressed totally in black with no helmets. Nice. Thankfully, for their sake no gravel trucks were in the area.

From the General: Ron Paul supporters blame “Jewish Cabal” for anti-Semitism charges.

This is an Open Thread.

With the near-complete absence of actual news this morning — an
escaping tiger killed someone (and was in turn killed) at the San Francisco zoo! A man who ran onto I-5 in Federal Way attacking cars was hit and killed by a speeding state trooper bullet! Holiday shopping was down this year! Several flakes of snow fell in Seattle on Christmas Day! — newspapers and TV stations in town are turning from the last drops of heartwarming holiday feature stories to year-end reviews in their use of fill material prepared ahead of time while reporters and editors take the week off.

You’ve been warned.

Christmas is a big day on my baby’s momma’s side of the family, and my baby’s no exception. I got my wakeup call at a relatively humane 7AM to join Katie for the unwrapping, and patient girl that she is, she even gave me the time to shower. I can’t be sure if she really liked all her gifts, because she’s always politely appreciative regardless, but by far her favorite present was the one she unwrapped last week: a kitten.

I cooked them breakfast, cleaned up, gave the dog a run, and now I’m getting ready to head off and embrace my Jewish heritage for a couple hours: I’m going to the movies: Sweeney Todd. (And yes, it is possible to be a huge Sondheim fan without being a great big faggot like Dan Savage.) Afterwards I’ll head up to the ex-in-laws for Christmas dinner and yet another round of gift unwrapping.

I hope the rest of you are enjoying your holiday, or at the very least, enjoying time-and-a-half holiday pay.

I’m hoping that Governor Gregoire doesn’t really believe that she will actually be stopping people from committing suicide by doing this:

Gov. Chris Gregoire is hoping to take the Aurora Bridge off the list of most popular spans for committing suicide, by putting $1.4 million in her supplemental budget proposal to begin building an 8-foot suicide-prevention fence on the historic landmark.

…

“Installation of an 8-foot suicide-prevention fence with illumination on the Aurora Avenue Bridge will help make the bridge safer and can help prevent suicides,” the governor said in budget documents released Tuesday.

Considering that the Aurora Bridge jumpers can land on buildings, I see some justification for this expenditure, but you have be even crazier than Lou Guzzo to believe that this is something that will save people from killing themselves.

If you want today’s headlines you’ll have to tune in to 710-KIRO this morning, where I’ll be filling in for Dave Ross from 9AM to Noon, bringing drive-by liberal propaganda to the masses.

9:00 AM: Are the elderly too old to know better?
The elderly have long been a juicy target for scam artists and “legitimate” salesmen alike, now families are fighting back with civil suits seeking to void legal contracts and other transactions, even those made without intimidation or deception. Should the elderly be treated like adolescents, who are not fully responsible for their decisions? Or should the elderly be held accountable for their own financial blunders, whatever the ultimate cost?

10AM: Are your tots toys toxic?
Millions of kids will eagerly rip the wrapping paper off their Christmas gifts tomorrow morning, but how many will come away with lead and other toxins on their hands? According to a series of free tests conducted by WA-08 challenger Darcy Burner, about 10-percent of toys and other children’s products contain lead above safe levels. Burner joins us by phone to discuss her findings, and talk about what Congress needs to do to address this growing problem.

11AM: Christians who don’t celebrate Christmas? Reverse shopping?

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

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:

7PM: TBA
Liberal propaganda.

8PM: Reproductive rights at risk?
When the Seattle Times’ David Postman asked Dino Rossi to explain his support of a court ruling allowing pharmacists to refuse prescriptions due to religious beliefs, Rossi declined an interview, his spokesperson saying “this is not a topic he has been campaigning on.” If NARAL/Pro-Choice Washington executive director Karen Cooper has anything to do it about, reproductive rights will remain a hot issue throughout the 2008 gubernatorial campaign, and Rossi will be forced to answer reporters questions about his very anti-choice positions. Cooper joins me by phone for the hour to take your calls.

9PM: Blogger roundup with Andrew Villeneuve
Andrew Villeneuve from Northwest Progressive Institute joins us in studio for more liberal propaganda.

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

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I’ll be filling in for Dave Ross this week (except for Christmas Day) 9AM to Noon, spreading my drive-by liberal propaganda to the masses.

The headline says it all: Fatal crash, new DUI record prompt WSP to step up patrol.

This month alone King County has had over 500 DUI arrests and Snohomish County has had 370 DUI arrests.

I wonder which county will end up with more convictions? Here in King County, while the police step up enforcement of the drunk driving laws, King County District Court Judge Peter Nault is working hard to reduce the number of successful prosecutions. Woodinville is fighting back, but it is not clear a victory will really change Judge Nault’s courtroom standards.

Ultimately the voters will have a say about Judge Nault’s fitness to serve. I am not a big fan of judicial elections, but as long as we have them, let’s put ’em to good use.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:

7PM: The Stranger Hour with Megan and Jonathan
The Stranger’s Megan Seling and Jonathan Zwickel join me to say goodbye to the Crocodile Cafe, which closed this week after 17 years of featuring some of Seattle’s biggest bands.

8PM: TBA
Liberal propaganda.

9PM: TBA
More liberal propaganda.

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

Yesterday I wrote about three Washington state politicians working to overturn FCC Chairman and all around punk Kevin Martin’s changes to media ownership rules. Here is another Washington state politician who took a strong stand on the issue:

This and some 70 other media clips from the past week in politics are now posted at Hominid Views.

Also, check out Lee’s (still unsolved) Bird’s Eye View Contest.

You know that old “Did I just say that out loud?” trope, like when Homer Simpson reverses his inner and outer monologues to comic effect? Well, that’s kinda what happened to Ted Van Dyk when he absentmindedly revealed the true objective of “governance reform”:

It would not stop light rail construction in place, but it would limit construction to a line running from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to either Convention Place, Husky Stadium, or Northgate. Future funding would be focused more greatly on express bus, bus rapid transit, and normal bus service; dedicated transit lanes; HOV lanes; tolling; and selective repair and expansion of long neglected local roads and lifeline highways. Citywide trolleys definitely would not be part of the scheme.

See, that’s the sort of honest discussion of governance reform you might hear over foie gras and Chateau Lynch-Bages at the Rainier Club (or some crank and a dead hooker at the Discovery Institute,) but it wasn’t really meant for public consumption. Publicly, the goal sounds laudable — the creation of a four-county, elected, regional transportation commission “better able to make independent, cost-benefit-based proposals for balanced transportation systems” — while privately our region’s power elite have always understood governance to be a scheme for shifting infrastructure dollars from rail to roads.

Well, thanks to Van Dyk and his inability to distinguish between consensus and wishing, it’s gonna be a tad harder for backers to sneak governance reform through the legislature this session. My fellow bloggers are all over the issue (here, here and here) while Josh over at The Stranger has aptly labeled it “the New Prop 1.” Driving a stake through the heart of light rail is the kinda thing muckraking bloggers like me hold grudges over, especially now that the goal of governance reform has been clearly spelled out, so you can bet that politically ambitious legislators would be wise to think twice before blindly signing on to this pro-roads/anti-rail vision of our region’s transportation future.

In fact, what we really need to solve our transportation problems is less regionalism, not more, a thesis I intend to lay out in some detail over the coming days and weeks. Stay tuned.

Geov thanks Tim Eyman for I-900, the ballot measure under which the scathing Port of Seattle performance audit was conducted, but I just have to point out that I-900 was largely redundant, a bit overreaching, and merely superseded a long fought for performance audit bill that had just been passed by the legislature the previous spring. Yes, it was by far the least toxic of Eyman’s measures, but it was unnecessary, and thus I don’t think Tim deserves any thanks at all.

My main complaint about the I-900 is that its effectiveness entirely depends on the willingness of the State Auditor to use it, and use it judiciously. Performance audits can be a bitch to comply with, yet require the full cooperation of the target agency if they are to achieve the stated goal of uncovering new efficiencies. If agency employees perceive an audit is being used punitively or politically, it can quickly become a waste of taxpayer money in itself. Under I-900 there is little or no oversight of the Auditor’s office, a failing that could undermine the entire process should the office become heavily politicized. One can easily see a partisan auditor using his power under I-900 to harass public agencies and influence the public debate.

That said, I have long supported performance audits in theory, so much so that I made the trek to Olympia to testify on behalf of the bill that eventually passed. In fact, I would like to see the practice taken even further by routinely subjecting tax “preferences” (you know… tax breaks, exemptions, loopholes, etc.) to the process. If Tim weren’t such a hypocrite, I’d expect him to join me in that quest. I’m not holding my breath.