HorsesAss.Org

I know next to nothing about science. When scientists (or at least those who aren’t on the payroll of Exxon) agree that human beings are having a significant effect on the climate, I tend to believe them.

That’s not some sort of hipster affectation, mind you. When people with doctorates in earth sciences speak in one voice, I try to set down the PBR and the graphic novel and listen. But what throws me for a loop is when good people, with the right idea, go off the rail.

Like the “Save The Polar Bears” crowd.

But really… Who should the polar bears fear the most? Local Sierra Club boss Mike O’Brien and his Nissan Pathfinder? Or some drunk Canuck with a shotgun?

The Canuck, it turns out.

Polar bears would stand a greater chance of avoiding extinction if people stopped shooting them than if they reduced greenhouse gas emissions, according to a book by a leading environmental skeptic.

Bjorn Lomborg, the Danish professor who achieved international fame with his previous book, The Skeptical Environmentalist, examines and rejects claims by environmentalists and the former president Al Gore that polar bears are drowning because the sea ice they hunt on is melting.

Lomborg says the story about drowning bears is taken from a single sighting of four dead bears the day after an abrupt windstorm. The bears came from a population that was actually increasing, which has been the overall trend in the polar bear population since the 1960s.

Lomborg, whose PhD is in political science and who doesn’t claim to be a scientist, gets all sorts of hisses and boos when he speaks. He even got nailed with a custard pie in Oxford. Hmm… Pie target Bill Gates is still shipping software, and the mannish Ann Coulter hasn’t been eaten by wolves. Perhaps the “pie throwing as a means of affecting public policy” meme is a bit played out, no?

Lomborg continues:

[He] points out that over the past decades, the global polar bear population has increased dramatically from about 5,000 members in the 1960s to around 25,000 as a result of the regulation of hunting.

Even if a decline in the bear population has taken place since the 1980s, he says, if we try to help them by cutting greenhouse gases we can at the very best avoid 15 bears dying, with realistic option meaning that it is probably only around 0.06 bears per year.

But he says, if we care for stable populations of polar bears, dealing with the 49 polar bears from the same population around Hudson Bay that get shot each year might be a smarter and more viable strategy.

I’d much rather see enviro groups pushing an American-style “cap and trade” system for controlling carbon dioxide in a way that would spur innovation and reward creativity, rather than more of these goofball vanity campaigns.

As David Horowitz and his legions of victim-card-playing chickenhawks at various American universities bitch and moan about how no one cares how often they have nightmares about terrorists, here’s a roundup of recent news reports from around the globe:

Gaza

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice told the House Foreign Affairs Committee that the U.S. is planning to send senior officials to examine Israel’s complaints that the smuggling of arms, equipment and persons from Egypt into the Hamas controlled Gaza Strip, continues.

Rice said that the smuggling activities are a grave concern and reiterated what she told her Egyptian counterpart Foreign Minister Ahmed Aboul Gheit two weeks ago about the need to do more, and “urgently.”

The Bush administration is concerned about the continued flow of arms into Gaza and is under constant pressure from Israel and its friends in Congress, calling on the administration to do more to convince Egypt to prevent the smuggling.

At least in public, Egypt is refusing to accept responsibility for the smuggling. American officials who will visit the area will try to determine the goings-on on both sides of the border.

Lebanon

Lebanese troops opened fire Thursday on Israeli warplanes flying low over southern Lebanon, but no hits were reported, Lebanese officials said.

Soldiers opened up with machine guns and light anti-aircraft weapons mounted on armored vehicles at two planes that flew by just east of Marjayoun town near the border at midmorning, a Lebanese security official said.

An army statement issued later in the day said “the Lebanese army’s ground antiaircraft guns confronted the hostile Israeli aircraft during its violation of Lebanese airspace over the regions of Marjayoun and Bint Jbeil, forcing it to leave over the town of Alma Chaab in the direction of the occupied lands.”

Lebanon, like most Arab countries, does not recognize the State of Israel.

Syria

Syria has razed a suspected nuclear reactor building that was bombed by Israeli aircraft, according to nuclear experts.

Using commercial satellite images, the Institute for Science and International Security said there were signs of a hasty clean-up of the site that was attacked last month.

“Dismantling and removing the building at such a rapid pace dramatically complicates any inspection of the facilities and suggests that Syria may be trying to hide what was there,” ISIS said on its website.

Turkey

Turkey today demanded the extradition of all Kurdish fighters in northern Iraq as its air force carried out further strikes on militant hideouts in the area.

The call by the Turkish deputy prime minister, Cemil Cicek, came after a meeting with the Iraqi defence minister in an attempt to defuse the rising conflict over the Kurdistan Workers’ party (PKK) fighters, who are operating from bases in Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq.

Iraq

The Iraqi government remains determined to expel the Blackwater USA security company and is searching for legal remedies to overturn an American-imposed decree that exempts all foreign bodyguards from prosecution under local laws, officials said Wednesday.

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki’s government accepted the findings of an Iraqi investigative committee that determined Blackwater guards, without provocation, killed 17 Iraqis last month in Nisoor Square in western Baghdad.

Iraqi investigators declared that Blackwater should be expelled and $8 million should be paid as compensation for each victim. The officials said the Cabinet decided Tuesday to establish a committee to find ways to repeal a 2004 directive issued by L. Paul Bremer, chief of the former U.S. occupation government in Iraq. The order placed private security companies outside Iraqi law.

Saudi Arabia

Oil roared past $90, setting a record Thursday, as tight inventories and fresh signs that OPEC would shrug off calls for additional oil from big consumer nations sent prices up nearly 4%.

U.S. crude settled up $3.36 at $90.46 a barrel after striking an intraday record of $90.60. The rise added to Wednesday’s gain of nearly $2.

Energy officials from OPEC nations Venezuela and Algeria said the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries would not boost output when it meets informally in Saudi Arabia next month.

Iran

THE big chill between the US and Iran has deepened, with the White House imposing its toughest sanctions in almost three decades on the rogue nation amid concerns the countries are headed for war.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and US Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson have slapped sweeping new financial penalties on Iran in a bid to force it to stop enriching uranium and curb its terrorist activities.

However some US allies are concerned the White House is starting to build a case for war against Iran.

Critics see parallels in the rhetoric the Bush Administration is using against Iran with comments it made about Iraq in the lead-up to the 2003 invasion of Baghdad.

Russia

Tensions between Russia and the West over sanctions against Iran will be laid bare today as President Vladimir Putin attends a summit with EU leaders in Portugal.

The Russian leader described supporters of tough policies as “mad people wielding razor blades” after the US imposed economic sanctions on the Islamic republic yesterday in an attempt to curb its nuclear programme.

Mr Putin, who is at the summit to discuss disputed trade issues with the EU, is expected to make further comments on Iran this afternoon after a senior American diplomat suggested that Russia was “aiding and abetting” the Iranian military.

Nicholas Burns, US Assistant Secretary of State, said that Russia should stop selling weapons to Iran, and China should stop investing in the Middle Eastern state. “They’re now the number one trade partner with Iran,” he told the BBC. “It’s very difficult for countries to say we’re striking out on our own when they’ve got their own policies on the military side, aiding and abetting the Iraninan government in strengthening its own military.”

Pakistan

A suicide bomber has attacked a truck carrying troops in Pakistan, killing at least 20 people and wounding 34.

The blast happened in Mingora, the main town in the north-western district of Swat where 2,500 paramilitary troops were deployed this week to fight supporters of a militant cleric.

The blast set off an explosion of ammunition carried inside a military truck, triggering bullet fire.

Most of the casualties were soldiers, but some bystanders were also hit. Some nearby shops, restaurants and cars were damaged.

Afghanistan

Gordon Brown yesterday amplified Nato calls for more combat troops in Afghanistan to spread a burden currently being borne by UK, US and Canadian forces, but the chief of defence staff warned that the country’s problems could only be resolved by political, not military, means.

Echoing concerns expressed by General Dan McNeill, commander of the Nato-led international force in the country, the prime minister called for greater “burden-sharing” in Afghanistan. Speaking after talks in London with President Hamid Karzai, he added: “We are all determined that Afghanistan should never become a failed state again, and to support the democracy that’s been created in that country.”

United States

With Democrats and Republicans on the hill sparring over the costs and lengths of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan, Adm. Michael Mullen said that the current levels on defense spending—about 4 percent of the GNP—will not likely be enough to meet the U.S. military’s future needs.

He noted that the current level of defense spending–in percentage of the GNP– is less than even during the Gulf War. The Bush administration has requested $481.7 billion for the defense budget in fiscal 2008 and over $190 billion more to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

There’s definitely a lot to be scared about in this world. No one is arguing that. Conflicts across the Middle East are getting worse right now and many of them truly ring the alarm bells. But while fear is a perfectly natural and healthy human emotion, it’s a pretty shitty mechanism for making sound decisions. When fear becomes an obstacle to using a rational approach to these problems, we end up only advocating solutions that do nothing more than compound the problems that make us scared in the first place. This is why we’ve ended up where we’re at in the Middle East. Out of fear, we convinced ourselves that Saddam Hussein was a much greater threat to us and his neighbors than he really was. We convinced ourselves that the Islamic radicalism that led to 9/11 is a much larger movement than it really was. Today, we still convince ourselves that if we leave Iraq, the “terrorists” will rejoice and follow us back home. And we continue to fear that merely talking to Iran and Syria makes us weak, even as it remains one of the key prerequisites for allowing us to fix the mess we’ve created on their doorstep. All of these fears are irrational, and all of them hinder our efforts to bring freedom and stability to the region.

During the Vietnam War, Richard Nixon used what he referred to as the “Madman theory”:

At the core of Nixon’s notions was a diplomacy-supporting stratagem he called the Madman Theory, or, as he and Bob Haldeman described it, “the principle of the threat of excessive force.” Nixon was convinced that his power would be enhanced if his opponents thought he might use excessive force, even nuclear force. That, coupled with his reputation for ruthlessness, he believed, would suggest that he was dangerously unpredictable. The Madman Theory undergirded not only his policy toward North Vietnam but also toward other adversaries, including the Soviet Union.

Nixon’s theory never actually worked to achieve its intended goals – to bring a quick end to the Vietnam War and to preserve the South Vietnamese government. The strategy was based upon the belief that using fear would change the Soviet outlook and get them to act in ways they otherwise would not. But it failed. The problem with the Madman Theory is that it requires your adversary to be someone who allows fear to alter their worldview and keep them from acting rationally. And the Soviet government at that time did not allow that to happen.

Today, we have a growing conflict with Iran where both sides are trying out Nixon’s Madman Theory. The Bush Administration continues to threaten military action against a country of 65 million people, and the Iranian President tries his best to play the part of the unpredictable nutjob who would nuke Israel to bring about the apocalypse (even though he doesn’t even have the power to do that). Both sides think they can get what they want by being seen as a threat. The question is which side will allow the fear from the other side to force them into a stupid decision.

If David Horowitz gets what he wants out of his silly self-promotion spectacle this week, and the Bush Administration listens to people like Bill Kristol and Norman Podhoretz, the losers in this pointless stare-down will be us.

Bill Maher offers some new rules for prioritizing things to fear:

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

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

7PM: The end of secular politics?
In his book The Theocons: Secular America Under Siege, Damon Linker argues that the ultimate goal of the theocon movement and their Republican allies is “the end of secular politics.” The former editor of the theocon journal First Things, Linker sat down with me earlier this week to talk about his book and the impact of the theocons on the 2008 election.

8PM: Wingnut Update
The first annual Islamo-Fascist Awareness Week has come to a close, and I’ve got exclusive audio of Michael Medved’s rousing speech to the University of Washington College Republicans. Plus kissing principals, trickstery insurance companies and other liberal propaganda.

9PM: TBA
Even more liberal propaganda.

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

Jean Godden’s campaign manager has an interesting hobby, as detailed by Gentry Lange (a supporter of Godden’s opponent, Joe Szwaja):

Carlo Davis, the campaign manager for Jean Godden, has spent a significant amount of time trolling the blogs distorting the facts, and posting under a list of fake names. Until recently this was simply a suspicion that I had no way to actually confirm, but recently The Paper Noose Blog traced his IP address and Carlo Davis then admitted to at least one of his blog pseudonyms.

Commenting under different fake names is nothing new in the blog world. People do it, sometimes just for fun. If you are a campaign professional, or if you value your credibility, anonymously trolling isn’t a good idea.

There’s a lot to look at, but this one is my favorites:

Posted by landsfarthereast at 8/17/07 1:08 p.m.

Wow. This is just a whose-who of Joe supporters in the comment thread. We have his campaign manager (Gentry Lange), his biggest fan (Mike G), and I’m assuming the rest are probably Gentry using different aliases.

Of course, “landsfarthereast” is Ms. Godden campaign manager…

Then there’s this:

Posted by landsfarthereast at 10/10/07 10:29 a.m.

@ LoveYourViaduct
“Actually, the happiest woman in Seattle this morning is probably the Gossip Goddess. She can point to her opponent’s colorful history again.”

That is truly one of the most despicable things I have ever read. To imply that someone is happy over a serious and tragic incident like this is beyond the pale. Shame on you.

To imply that the Jean Godden’s campaign would politicize a sensitive issue such as an alleged case of domestic violence, that’s beyond the pale…

Except that Godden’s people did just that back in June:

Goldy says:

Just to back up Geov here on his explanation of the process, the story on Szwaja was fed to me a few days ago, so it was clearly being pushed to reporters and bloggers. Though I was a bit surprised to see it appear so quickly in the P-I.

Godden’s people probably don’t mind it that McIver’s troubles have put domestic violence back in the headlines, if only to remind people of Joe’s problems 20 years ago. When campaign managers feign outrage anonymously online, I just have to laugh.

(h/t Chevy Chase)

Speaking of fake news, didja hear the one about FEMA’s fake news conference this week, featuring friendly questions from “reporters” who turned out to be FEMA staffers?

Weekends are the slowest time for actual news, and the time when the fewest people pay attention to the news, which is why so many interesting things happen Friday afternoon. The Bush administration in particular has perfected the art of the Friday Afternoon News Dump ™, in which embarrassing or unflattering news items are released at the very close of business Friday so as to show up, largely unnoticed, in Friday’s late-night news and the lightly read Saturday morning papers. It’s a cute (and often effective) way to bury a story.

No apparent FANDs today, though. The New York Times does have a nice piece on the real significance of George Bush’s tough new sanctions against Iran: the fact that they’re being carried out unilaterally, walking away from both the support of European allies and the diplomatic process the Europeans have championed. Pointedly, the sanctions came without any parallel diplomatic overtures. Another sign pointing toward the Bush cabal’s intent for war with Iran.

Back in the old war (well, the most recent of the old wars), the Iraqi government announced yesterday that it is revoking the law guaranteeing immunity for U.S. contractors. Of course, it still has to catch them, which, without cooperation from the U.S., will be virtually impossible, so it is in many ways a meaningless gesture. As is the Iraqi government itself.

The top local story: Puget Sound Energy’s sale, to an investment company comprised of Canadian and Australian firms — though you have to read to near the end of the P-I’s story to pick up on that nugget, or that the sale will take PSE private so that the utility’s finances will not be open to public inspection except during rate hikes.

The Bothell Times, on the other hand, has nothing at all on the PSE sale, but does have a lead story using a confirmed grand jury involvement to recycle the week-old news of rape allegations against illusionist David Copperfield

The P-I pulled the same stretching-for-a-story trick with a piece on the SEC investigating insider trading at Jones Soda. Well, maybe they are. Turns out the whole story is based on the paper’s reading of an SEC refusal of a FOIA request from the newspaper. That’s the basis for more digging, but not for a story in itself. Unless it’s Saturday and you’ve got space to fill.

And why is the P-I also flogging next Monday’s (sold-out) Hannah Montana Key Arena show on its front page, with not one but two stories? (The word “pandering” springs to mind — specifically, to kids who think their parents’ newspaper is boring.) Telling us above the fold that a Disney Channel teen sensation has fans who are teenagers is many things. “News” is not one of them.

Oh: while I’m here (and since Goldy does this so shamelessly, why shouldn’t I?), I’m on the radio this and every Saturday morning (and have been since 1996) from 8:30-9 AM, commenting on the news of the week on Mind Over Matters on KEXP-90.3 FM. The show is also archived, for those of you who don’t get up that early in the morning on a weekend; check it out at www.kexp.org.

Well, at UW and at campuses across the country, Islamofascism Awareness Week has come and gone, with no increasing awareness that anyone has noticed regarding the shibboleth of “Islamofascism.” But there’s been plenty of “awareness” (or at least air time) given to its sponsor, David Horowitz. Now, via Talking Points Memo, we know why. In an interview with the George Washington University student paper The Hatchet, Horowitz says:

“I’m a prominent conservative but no one is inviting me to speak at their campuses, [so] I had to create an event.”

There you have it. Horowitz acts not out of concern for the safety of the republic, but to enrich himself, in this case through speaking gigs. All that’s missing is a cozy Bush administration regulatory appointment to feather the nest for himself and his friends. Oh – wait – the whole point is that Horowitz doesn’t seem to have friends. Hence the public spectacle to create invitations.

And funny how if you substitute the word “events” for “campuses,” and “organization” for “event,” Horowitz’s words could have come right out of Dino Rossi’s mouth circa Forward Washington days. Hmm.

I’m filling in for Frank Shiers tonight from 9PM to 1AM on News/Talk 710-KIRO, and in tribute to my mentor and friend, I won’t believe in global warming for the entire first hour.

Bill Monto from Simply Better Schools joins me for the first hour to talk about 4204, the constitutional amendment to pass school levies by a simple majority vote. Then Dave Neiwert of Orcinus stops by to talk about the Southern California wildfire’s, and the wingnut response.

After that, I’ll rant about stuff. Or something. Tune in.

Republican Dan Satterberg is back up on the airwaves again just a week and a half before the November election, touting his “non-partisanship” in the very partisan race for King County Prosecuting Attorney. Media observers tell me that Satterberg has booked $180,000 of TV and radio time, an extraordinary amount for a campaign that just ten days ago reported just $126,000 cash on hand.

How can he afford it? Well it looks like Satterberg is plowing everything into broadcast while the Washington State Republican Party picks up the rest of the tab via in-kind expenditures… and man is it shaping up to be some tab. The WSRP “Non-Exempt” Committee has hauled in nearly $170,000 over the past couple weeks, including $25,000 a pop from Martin Selig and Bruce McCaw, and $50,000 from diminutive Eastside developer Skip Rowley. Oh, they’ll say the money wasn’t earmarked but we all know that’s not how this game works, and reliable sources tell me that Rowley has said his primary motivation is to get a Republican on the King County Elections Canvassing Board.

That “Republican” would be Dan Satterberg.

I always expected Democrat Bill Sherman to be outspent two-to-one, but even against those odds I honestly always expected him to win. But four-to-one? It doesn’t look so good. You just don’t win a relatively low-profile race like this when you’re opponent is steadily up on TV, and you’re limited to direct mail. I find it incredibly disheartening to see Democrats allow Republicans and their developer patrons to buy this election with cold hard cash.

Daily Kos:

The candidate, Cheryl Haskins, is the Executive Director of an anti-gay marriage group, and her husband is a pastor of a conservative megachurch north of the city. She is African-American, a fact which makes her candidacy attractive to many voters in the racially diverse community, which currently has no people of color on its city council. Until recently, however, her anti-gay political activism and ties to the Religious Right were not part of the political discourse, and with her campaign signs and huge billboards plastering the city, she was destined to win the election without controversy.

Only five percent of Haskins’ contributions have come from within the city of Renton. This isn’t so great for a self proclaimed ten-year resident.

Haskins’ is also on the board of Alliance for Marriage and Children along with her husband Aaron Haskins, who is employed by City Church in Kirkland. A huge amount of Haskins’ contributions have come from donors with ties to City Church. (Ties to working-class Renton? Not so much.) We should all remember that Alliance for Marriage, with all their feel-good, up-with-people rhetoric, worked hard to protect an employers ability to fire a person simply for being gay or lesbian.

For more info, check out rentonfacts.

The Morning After: Engadget does an MRI and issues a clean bill of health. Seattle Times Mac heads Glenn Fleishman and Jeff Carlson weigh in and promise more to come, which is good. My chief complaint with tech reviews is that they’re superficial and way too early to be meaningful. Yet reviewers hardly ever revisit a system because there’s always something new and fresh to promote.

My early take: Leopard is a great upgrade, but Apple shouldn’t be charging $129 for these incremental pops. A $60 or so price tag would be more reasonable. Apple likes to talk about the fact it issues 5 upgrades to every 1 for Windows, but neglects to mention that means (using Apple’s own math) Mac users are paying $600 or more while Windows users pay $200 to $300. Of course, when the Windows upgrade is a turkey like Vista, you can certainly argue Mac users get the better value per buck.

Meanwhile, earlier on the same page:

UPDATE: Lines have been reported outside Apple stores in the Bay Area. But U Village’s store is closed for renovation, which a steady stream of disappointed customers today apparently did not know. Alderwood Mall had long enough lines so that folks were still waiting an hour and half after opening. Same story at Bellevue Square.

A friend reports his brother-in-law on Capitol Hill didn’t get Leopard, then called, and they re-delivered (FedEx claimed they’d been out but he wasn’t home, although the guy had been home all day). FedEx was delivering something like 135,000 in the region today, they told him…

Dave Winer will get his copy of Leopard today after all. But just in case, and as a great-idea, truth-squadding, follow-on to tonight’s rollout, Winer came up with a plan to “flash conference” Leopard on Monday. We’ll follow this with interest.

Chuck Shotton has discovered a bug! “Leopard’s “migrate user” function has failed 3 times on 3 separate clean installs. This is a seriously broken, critical piece of the OS.”

Meanwhile, Sylvia Paull has fallen victim to the Apple gateway drug.

And just be glad you’re not a Windows user: “Something seems to have gone horribly wrong in an untold number of IT departments on Wednesday after Microsoft installed a resource-hogging search application on machines company-wide, even though administrators had configured systems not to use the program.”

And FYI… I’ll be filling in for Frank Shiers tonight on 710-KIRO from 9PM to 1AM. As always, in tribute to my mentor and friend, I will not believe in global warming during the first hour.

Puget Sound Energy has agreed to be acquired by a consortium of Australian and Canadian investment funds for $30 a share, a 25-percent premium over Thursday’s closing stock price of $23.95. PSE is Washington state’s largest private utility, serving over 1 million electric and 718,000 natural gas customers throughout the region.

After years of record trade deficits, isn’t it comforting to know that at least one segment of US exports is still going strong?

What will this mean for customers? Well, the deal still needs to be approved by shareholders as well as regulators at both WUTC and FERC. And of course, rate hikes will remain subject to regulation. But by taking the company private and delisting its stock, the new owners won’t need to provide the same sort of detailed financial reporting the SEC requires of public corporations.

Filling in late nights at 710-KIRO during last year’s extended, post-windstorm blackouts, I fielded dozens of angry calls from PSE customers complaining that the infrastructure had not been adequately maintained, and that the company was slow to bring in outside crews to get ex-urban neighborhoods back on the grid quickly. Will the new, privately held PSE really invest in improving service? Or will they just suck profits out of their captive customers? While I had my own complaints about Seattle City Light’s performance, I’m personally much more comfortable relying on a public utility for such a vital service, than a foreign-owned, private monopoly… especially in our increasingly volatile and expensive energy market.

Oh, man… it’s not so easy doing this morning news headline thing, when some of the most tempting news stories aren’t really news after all.

Take for example, Dino Rossi’s “long-expected” campaign kickoff. The Seattle P-I headline trumpets “Rossi back on the campaign trail.” But was he ever off it? Um… no. As the Seattle Times points out, “the overarching theme of Rossi’s hourlong speech was retreaded from his 2004 campaign”… you know the same retreaded speech he’s been giving throughout the state for the past year or so.

So not exactly news, unless, of course, you’re Postman: “I have to admit to thinking the chances were 50-50.” Uh-huh.

Know what else isn’t news? Rossi’s campaign theme, which includes (SURPRISE!) cutting taxes!

“[Gov. Gregoire] has since raised taxes on gas, many families who have lost loved ones, and in other sectors.”

Sure, you betcha… voters are gonna be awfully damn pissed off about those gas and estate taxes that they, um, you know… overwhelmingly approved at the polls.

Yeah, it’s not gonna be so easy for Rossi in 2008 because this time around I’m guessing reporters are actually going to ask him actual questions about where he actually stands on actual issues. Like SCHIP. The US House just passed the Children’s Health Insurance Program a second time, though not by a large enough margin to override a second promised presidential veto. In an email to supporters today, Gov. Chris Gregoire makes no bones about where she stands on extending health care to over 4 million children, and defending WA’s gains against President Bush’s “draconian measures.”

Let me be crystal clear about one thing regarding these threats from George W. Bush and the Republicans: I won’t back down.

Earlier this month, I joined with a group of fellow governors to fight back against this irresponsible Bush policy in the federal courts. And I will continue to work closely with the members of our delegation in Washington, DC to make sure we deliver for the children of our state.

As your governor, I have fought for and expanded health care access to an additional 84,000 children – and here in Washington we are on track to provide access to health care for every single child in Washington by 2010.

This fight over children’s health care represents a fundamental difference in values that will define the choice in the upcoming election. George W. Bush and the Republicans’ priorities put them squarely outside the mainstream in our state.

We’re doing right by Washington’s children, and as governor I won’t back down.

I guess this is what Rossi means when he talks about Gregoire being “the governor for the government, not the governor for the people,” because you know… children aren’t people. (Unless they’re fetuses.)

When a governor speaks this boldly and this bluntly, that’s news, whereas the fact that the moon is big and fishing is catching on as a college sport, is not. Also not in the news today is NBA commissioner David Stern criticizing Seattle as heartless for not throwing half a billion dollars at the Sonics’ Oklahoma City owners, nor Bush leading us inexorably toward war with Iran. Whereas very, very rich people spending enormous sums of money on luxury travel, well, that always deserves a front page story. Who knew?

If the cream rises to the top, then the Seattle City Council is the political equivalent of a nonfat, decaf cappuccino: there ain’t nothin’ on top but foam. In fact, the choices this cycle are so unsatisfying that if some of the candidates were running unopposed I’d still have a tough time making a decision. Still, there’s one race where the choice seems clear.

On the one hand we have council wallflower/campaign warmonger David Della, who City Hall observers assure me, really is the incumbent. My handful of brief conversations with Della don’t quite give me a fair basis for concluding, as the The Stranger has, that he “simply isn’t intellectually fit to be on the council”… but then, they don’t give me much to refute the assertion either. I’m no fan of the Sierra Club right now, but accusing the environmental community of being a bunch of racists…? I’ve known mildly autistic people with better political instincts. Really.

Then on the other hand, we have Tim Burgess, a man who has spent the better part of a decade writing fundraising letters for anti-gay, anti-woman, right-wing hate groups… letters that equated homosexuality with pedophilia and emergency contraception with abortion, and that accused the National Education Association of seeking to turn our public schools into gay propaganda and recruitment camps. Really. Sure, he says his positions have evolved… since 2005… but I can’t help but think he thinks we’re all stupid. No doubt he’d bring a great deal more competency to the council than Della — a great, great, great, great deal more competency, I imagine — but competency in the service of an agenda I do not trust, I can do without.

That’s why I’m unreservedly casting my ballot for Heidi Wills.

Wills was a promising young councilmember on the fast track to bigger and better things, when our mind-fuckingly puritanical media crucified her on a demi-scandal of no great significance, before Della and his political hatchet-man swooped in with their mean-spirited and misleading “Rate-Hike Heidi” campaign. It’s amazing what one can accomplish with a little alliteration.

So for all you assholes complaining about your choices this cycle, but who bought into that crap four years ago (or, who like the Seattle Times, just seem to hate the notion of young women in politics,) I’ve got a simple seven-word, bumper sticker response: “Don’t blame me, I voted for Heidi.”

Generally, I don’t recommend throwing away a vote under any circumstances, but perhaps if enough people write-in Heidi or the person of their choice, it might send a message that Seattle voters have a hunger for candidates who are both qualified and clearly represent their values. Perhaps then, four years from now, we might get a field of challengers we can vote for without sticking our fingers down our throats afterwards.

(Or, if you can’t do that, vote for Della. He’ll be the easier one to beat in four years.)