HorsesAss.Org

In the last several months I’ve talked to several people who are supporting Hillary Clinton for president primarily because she is a woman. Personally, I can’t overlook a candidate’s stand on the issues, but when female friends say they want to see a woman president in their lifetime, I don’t blame them.

But, why Hillary Clinton? I totally dig how she stirs up hate by the right-wing mental midgets who comment on this blog. That said, Clinton would be a continuation of her husband’s two terms in office. While I loved the 90’s, I think we need to move forward with some new blood. Contrary to conventional wisdom, there is at least one Democratic woman out there who will one day be on the national stage.

I’m talking about Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who is sticking it to President Bush:

For months, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius of Kansas and other governors have warned that their state National Guards are ill-prepared for the next local disaster, be it a tornado a flash flood or a terrorist’s threat, because of large deployments of their soldiers and equipment in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Then, last Friday night, a deadly tornado all but cleared the small town of Greensburg off the Kansas map. With 80 square blocks of the small farming town destroyed, Ms. Sebelius said her fears had come true: The emergency response was too slow, she said, and there was only one reason.

“As you travel around Greensburg, you’ll see that city and county trucks have been destroyed,” Ms. Sebelius, a Democrat, said Monday. “The National Guard is one of our first responders. They don’t have the equipment they need to come in, and it just makes it that much slower.”

While the Governor and the White House have cooled the war of words, the issue still stands. When resources from states like Kansas are sent to the occupation in Iraq, our local authorities won’t have the ability to respond to disasters like they would if they were fully equipped. Sometimes this is unavoidable, but governors all over the country have been sounding the alarm for years now.

Gov. Kathleen Sebelius could be on the ticket in 2008. With good reason. She’s ready for prime time. Of all the women in politics today, she’s the toughest. Kansas tough. And whether it’s an incompetent president in DC or a tornado, she proves she can deal with anything.

A few observations to chew on this sunny Wednesday morning:

• Once again the Seattle Times editorial board urges the Washington State Supreme Court to follow the will of the voters. I’m no lawyer (much to my mother’s chagrin,) but I always thought their oath was to follow the, you know, um… Constitution.

• See, this is why public education fails. How can we expect our children to succeed in life when they’re wasting time on frivilous things like music, instead of studying for the WASL?

• Manhattan District Attorney Fred Thompson won the straw poll at the WSRP’s 25th Annual Gala Dinner & Auction, leading Party Chair Luke Esser to pronounce that the other candidates (you know, the ones actually running) have their work cut out to match the support Thompson is receiving from “grassroots activists.”

  Hmm. More revealing than Thompson’s victory is Esser’s definition of “grassroots,” which apparently refers to the 29-percent who bothered to vote at a $100-a-plate Republican “Gala.” Perhaps the word he was searching for was “elite”…?

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Join us for some hoppy beer and hopped up debate.

Join us for some yummy, gluten-free beer.

Not in Seattle? Liberals will also be drinking tonight in the Tri-Cities. A full listing of Washington’s eleven Drinking Liberally chapters is available here.

“FDA and USDA believe the likelihood of illness after eating such pork is extremely low.”
— USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We have no reason to believe that any of those are currently in the human food supply as a direct ingredient.”
— USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We have no reason to believe that anything other than the rice protein concentrate or the wheat gluten have been a problem in the United States recently.”
— USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“But overall, we believe the risk to be extremely low to humans.”
— USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

“We believe that the likelihood of illness from such exposure is extremely low.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“One of the reasons we believe that this is very low in humans is due to the dilution effect.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We believe the situation in the poultry is very much like that for the swine.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We do not believe that there is any significant threat of human illness from consuming poultry.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/1/2007

“We believe the likelihood of illness to humans, including infants, is extremely small.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

“We believe the likelihood of a human illness is very remote.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

“We have no reason to believe those animals are any risk to the public.”
— USDA/FDA, 5/3/2007

—

“There’s no tolerance for any of these compounds, either melamine or cyanuric acid. […] We just don’t know when we get these mixtures together. So there is no, really no acceptable level.”
— USDA/FDA, 4/26/2007

I’m not a very spiritual person, but I’m having a crisis of faith.

Twice a week I sit in on the FDA’s media teleconference regarding our growing food safety crisis, and twice a week I come away struck by the difference between what officials believe and what they actually know. As a born agnostic and a fan of science, I can fully appreciate the FDA’s reluctance to express absolute certainty. But as a devoted father and pet owner, I can’t help but find their reassurances less than reassuring.

First we were told that none of the adulterated wheat gluten and rice protein concentrate had made its way into the human food supply, and then we were informed that a mere 6,000 hogs had eaten feed contaminated by “salvaged” pet food. Next it was chickens. 3 million of them. Slaughtered, butchered and eaten by unsuspecting Americans.

Then 20 million more chickens, and today another 50,000 hogs… not to mention the God-knows-how-many fish in the US and Canada raised on farms now known to have received Canadian fish meal manufactured from contaminated Chinese flours.

Still… not to worry, we are told, because large manufacturers are “unlikely to have exposed their animals to large amounts of the tainted pet products.”

Uh-oh. Qualified statements like that set off alarm bells, and every bell this scandal has rung thus far has been answered a few days later with another revelation. The practice of selling salvaged pet food for livestock feed is more widespread than previously acknowledged, encompassing nearly the entire US pet food manufacturing industry. Given what we know of these practices, and the nature of the livestock and feed industries, it is reasonable to speculate that hundreds of millions of U.S.-grown hogs, chickens and fish have been contaminated, dating back to November or July of 2006, or perhaps even further.

But not to worry, we are told, for even that only represents a small percentage of the 9 billion chickens raised in the U.S. annually, a number the FDA bizarrely considers to be “a small part of [our] overall diet.” Affected hogs and chickens “appear to be healthy.” Even if the boneless breast in your freezer does contain melamine, it’s only a tiny amount. And besides, we are told, “we have no reason to believe” this poses a risk to human health.

Uh-huh.

I know I sometimes come off as a tad alarmist, but before you dismiss my skepticism lets first review what we know versus what we believe.

What we know:

• Tainted pet food has killed or sickened tens of thousands of cats and dogs, some dropping dead within a meal or two of first ingesting melamine and related compounds such as cyanuric acid.
• Autopsies have discovered “plasticized” cat kidneys, clogged with crystals comprised of equal parts melamine and cyanuric acid.
• Laboratory tests have have reproduced the formation of these crystals in a test tube by mixing melamine and cyanuric acid in the presence of urine.
• Tainted pet food containing melamine and cyanuric acid was “salvaged,” and sold as livestock feed, contaminating untold millions of hogs and chickens.
• About three million chickens and several hundred hogs are known to have been slaughtered, butchered and presumably eaten. At least another 20 million chickens are known to have consumed contaminated feed.

What we believe:

• Tainted meat poses little risk to human health.

I would love to join my friends in the legacy media in reporting that our food supply is safe. I love food. I eat it every day. But I’m having trouble taking that leap of faith, not simply because of what we know, but because of what we don’t know. For example, we have no idea if melamine/cyanuric acid crystals bio-accumulate in human kidneys over time, and we’re not even sure exactly how long or how widely these toxins have contaminated our food supply.

And… despite USDA/FDA’s recent assurance that contaminated meat is safe to eat, this “most extreme risk assessment scenario” was conducted without ever bothering to test melamine and cyanuric acid levels in the meat of contaminated hogs and chickens.

At least, that’s what they told me. FDA spokesperson Julie Zawisza explained that “identifying these compounds in high protein environments (eg, muscle/tissue) is not that simple” and that they “are still working on a valid test.”

Fair enough. So I asked Midwest Labs, a widely respected testing facility, if they could test “a pork chop or piece of chicken” as reliably as they could test, say, a can of dog food. Their response?

“We can certainly test a food item or a pet food item for melamine. Their is a bit of prep work involved in testing a food sample for melamine, but this is certainly not a problem. Testing muscle tissue will only give a different consistency to the prepped sample. Neither should be a problem.”

When USDA/FDA released contaminated animals from quarantine, and approved them for market, they did so without ever directly testing the meat, and with no restriction on the sale or consumption of organs such as liver or kidney, where the melamine/cyanuric acid crystals are known to accumulate… organ meat that millions of Americans do consume on a regular basis, sometimes knowingly.

USDA/FDA say they believe the melamine level in meat would be very low, but they haven’t bothered to test it. They say they believe melamine is nontoxic to humans, but then, a few months ago we believed it was nontoxic to dogs and cats too. They say they believe that there have been no human health problems due to eating tainted pork and chicken, but admit that the Centers for Disease Control has “limited ability to detect subtle problems due to melamine and melamine-related compounds.”

And while USDA/FDA have focused their efforts almost entirely on inspecting imports of vegetable protein concentrates, and on tracking contaminated product through the animal and human food supply, the import of processed foods, meat and farmed seafood products from China has continued unchecked and unabated, despite the obvious potential of contamination within China’s own, largely unregulated, agriculture and food industries.

According to recent studies, 81-percent of America’s seafood is imported, and about 40-percent of that is farmed. China is the world’s aquaculture leader, accounting for about 70-percent of global production. It is also a major U.S. supplier of farm-raised shrimp, catfish, tilapia, carp, clams, eel and other aquaculture products.

We now know that it is common practice in China to spike the nitrogen level of livestock feed by adulterating the product with both scrap melamine and scrap cyanuric acid. And it has also been widely reported that this contaminated feed is routinely used in China’s burgeoning aquaculture industry.

The chemical producers said it was common knowledge that for years cyanuric acid had been used in animal and fish feed. […] “Cyanuric acid scrap can be added to animal feed,” says Yu Luwei, general manager of Juancheng Ouya Chemical Company in Shandong Province. “I sell it to fish meal manufacturers and fish farmers. It can also be added to feed for other animals.”

Fish physiology can leave them particularly prone to bio-accumulating certain contaminants, and the nature of common aquaculture practices tends to exacerbate the problem. Farmed seafood raised on a steady diet of contaminated feed would surely retain some of the toxins in its flesh. But as far as we know, no imported, Chinese aquaculture products have yet been tested.

The fact is, due to greed, negligence and uncontrolled Chinese capitalism our food supply has been widely contaminated by melamine and related compounds, and USDA, FDA, CDC and other government agencies have no idea what the long term human health effects might be. Throughout this unfolding crisis, the regulatory agencies tasked with assuring the safety and purity of our food supply have consistently downplayed the risk to humans — a somewhat understandable attitude considering Chinese and American consumers have apparently been eating melamine-tainted food for months, if not years, with no known epidemiological impact. But given the harm to our pets, and the fact that kidney damage is cumulative and can remain asymptomatic until renal function is mostly lost, I wonder how many Americans would be willing to accept on blind faith USDA/FDA’s reassurances that products containing “low” levels of melamine are perfectly safe to feed to our children?

Personally, I find it hard to believe.

During an ongoing media teleconference call, USDA/FDA officials have revealed that melamine-tainted “protein concentrate,” imported from China, contaminated fish meal manufactured in Canada. The tainted fish meal was then distributed to an unknown number of fish farms in the US and Canada.

Other revelations:

• 50,000 swine have been quarantined in Illinois due to suspect feed.
• The tainted “wheat gluten” and “rice protein concentrate” at the center of the pet food recall, was actually misrepresented as such. Further tests have determined that it is wheat flour, adulterated with melamine.

UPDATE:
FDA refuses to reveal how many fish farms and in which states. But you can be pretty damn sure that NW farmed salmon is likely on the list.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
I just have to say that this is STUNNING. Two months after first determining a problem with “wheat gluten flour” they only now determine it was really plain old wheat FLOUR? Anybody who has ever baked bread would have been able to tell the difference… the two products have different color and texture. Mix in a little water and rub it between your fingers, and you can tell the difference with your eyes closed.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE:
The image to the right is an actual photo of an actual melamine-tainted sack of “wheat gluten” imported by ChemNutra. As the FDA made clear today, the bag is labeled “Wheat Gluten”, but the contents were actually wheat flour adulterated with melamine to spike the nitrogen content. Wheat flour might typically contain 14-percent protein by weight. Wheat gluten (or more appropriately, “vital wheat gluten flour”) contains a minimum of 75-percent protein by weight. This helps explain the surprisingly high levels of melamine found in some samples.

UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE, UPDATE:
More pet food recalls coming….

Postman reads the New Republic. Here’s a snip of the original article:

FOR THE NETROOTS, partisan fidelity is the sine qua non. As Moulitsas told Newsweek in 2005, “The issue is: Are you proud to be a Democrat? Are you partisan?” What they cannot forgive is Democrats or liberals who distance themselves from their party or who give ammunition to the enemy. The netroots will forgive Democrats in conservative districts for moving as far to the right as necessary to win elections. But they do everything within their power to eliminate from liberal states or districts moderates like Joe Lieberman or Jane Harman, whose stances are born of conviction rather than necessity. This is precisely the same principle espoused by Norquist and other GOP activists. They will defend Republicans who need to demonstrate their independence from the national party in order to maintain their electoral viability. (As Norquist once remarked about Lincoln Chafee, “A Republican from Rhode Island is a gift from the gods.”)

First off, in 2006, conservative groups like Club for Growth went after Senator Lincoln Chafee. They ran a right wing candidate in the primary that forced Chafee to move to the right, only to put in out of the mainstream in the general election. Rhode Islanders loved the Chafee family, and they really liked Lincoln Chafee. But, after seeing him tack to the right, they remembered that their “nice guy” Senator was still a Republican. And being a Republican in New England was a really bad thing to be in ’06.

So the idea that the conservative interest groups are so Machiavellian, so brilliant, and so comfortable with moderates like Chafee, is wrong. Democrats like Markos from DailyKos got painted as a purity-demanding extremists for going after Lieberman. The difference is, Connecticut is a blue state, and either Lieberman or Ned Lamont was going to win in ’06, so there was no real downside to trying to knock out the DINO Lieberman. Conservatives, on the other hand, were not nearly so savvy, and sabotaged Chafee with an ill-advised primary challenge.

The Netroots? Smart and savvy. Club for Growth and other conservative groups? Dumbest mother f****** in the universe.

What’s more, ever since Rep. Jane Harmon was challenged by the Democratic base in her district, she has seen the light and has become a great congresswoman. And conservative Democrats like Sen. Ben Nelson and Rep. Gene Taylor do receive their fair share of kudos on liberal blogs, even though those two guys don’t vote with Democrats as much as I’d like them to. Heck, having Nelson in Nebraska is a gift from God, and Taylor, while socially conservative, is an FDR Democrat.

As for the difference between the “wonkosphere” and party-line Democratic blogs, I see the difference, but in the end everyone is on the same team. Goldy a political blogger of the first order; he’s all about winning elections and gaining/using power. But, he also has his wonky side wherein he’ll get into the nitty-gritty of tax reform and gambling issues. I too am a proud political hack who also likes to write about health care and urban planning.

So, Postman, I’d take anything about liberal blogs that’s published in the New Republic with a gigantic grain of salt. They love kiss-ass DC cocktail party Democrats who apologize for being Democrats. The New Republic LOVES Lieberman, and they love Democrats who believe that if only Democrats were more like Republicans, they’d be in power…

…when, in fact, as we learned in ’06, the opposite is true.

Faced with inexplicable tragedy like the killer tornado that wiped Greenburg, Kansas off the map, people of faith sometimes ask how a compassionate God could allow such horrific suffering. Well, the Reverend Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas explains: God hates fags.

Amen.

Friends of Seattle, following the smash success of their kickoff event in Belltown some weeks ago, are throwing another get-together that mixes big city politics with (what else?) stiff drinks.

You can RSVP here.

Wednesday, May 9, 2007, 5:30-8:30 PM
The Baltic Room (1207 Pine Street)
(a recommended $10 contribution gets you membership and a free drink)

Expect lots of great guests and conversation. More info here.

Inside this great piece by Angela Galloway at the P-I there is this gem:

[F]ree parking costs everyone, said Donald Shoup, the nation’s most prominent academic on parking policies and an urban planning professor at the University of California-Los Angeles. Free parking inflates grocery bills, housing costs and movie ticket prices, he said. The burden is heaviest on the poorest, he said.

“Even if you’re too poor to own a car, you have to pay for parking,” said Shoup, author of “The High Cost of Free Parking.” Like other cities, Seattle has “very expensive housing of people and free parking for cars — and I think we’ve got our priorities the wrong way around.”

I live close to downtown, where free parking is tough to find. However, there are plenty of pay lots available, and parking is free on city streets after 6pm and on Sundays. Lots of people take the bus to work in the downtown core, and the people who do drive have a look of pain on their faces as they idle in gridlock on downtown streets.

(Folks in Seattle often say “there isn’t any parking downtown.” What they mean is there isn’t any “free” parking downtown. How folks spend money downtown while expecting their car to stay for free is beyond me.)

In his book, Shoup makes it clear that even if I choose not the drive, I still pay costs for parking. When new condo developments are built, new residents who choose not to own a car are nonetheless paying more for their units. Essentially, residents are socially engineered into owning cars.

U-District community activist Matt Fox (who comments anonymously on some local blogs) isn’t on board:

Officials say forcing unneeded parking inflates cost of development. Each above-ground spot costs developers about $20,000, below-ground spots can cost $30,000 to $40,000 or more, said City Planning Director John Rahaim.

Officials say unnecessary parking costs undermine the city’s efforts of providing affordable housing. But some doubt the relaxed rules will produce the anticipated savings.

“It’s really good for developers’ bottom line, but it’s not good for the quality of life in the neighborhoods or for small businesses,” activist Fox said.

Back in my car-drivin’ days, I used to spend entirely too much time on my Saturdays circling the Ave, block after block, looking for a spot to park my Geo Metro. The spot I found was usually really far from the Ave, and I did a fair amount of walking around from shop to shop before trekking back to the car. Now that Metro does my driving, the bus drops me off right on the Ave. After ditching the Geo Metro in favor of King County Metro, I go to the U-District more than ever for all sorts of things.

What kind of stuff, you ask? A used Adidas track jackets at the Buffalo Exchange, or maybe a movie at the delightfully dilapidated Varsity (or the Neptune, which is very cool). The UW Bookstore for Marx or Friedman. Maybe Costas for those goofy-ass french fries or the College Inn Pub for several pints of their finest bitter. Over time, the Ave holds up well, even after a controversial makeover a few years back. I have relatives who still love the Ave, years after their college days.

Maybe further auto restrictions will be the death of commercial districts all over Seattle. I do not believe it will be.

But what about folks who have to have a car to get their work done?

[Ditching her car is not] an option for Morley, who is on two waiting lists for spots in private garages, she said. Many mornings, 40 minutes after she arrives at work, an alarm on her computer reminds her to get back in her car and head toward the good spots.

If she misses out, sometimes she parks in a nearby free one-hour spot and resets her alarm for another try. Or she can pay for up to two hours at one of 570 Uptown street spots that were free until the city installed meters there last year.

Leaving the car at home is not an option, she said.

“I’m in sales, so I have meetings all day. So it’s not really a choice for me,” said Morley, whose work takes her around town and to the suburbs. She said the city’s policies don’t take into account people for whom “driving is part of your job.”

For sales folks, parking a a big deal. I don’t want to minimize their frustration. That said, companies are going to have to figure out solutions to these problems sooner or later. Companies are already utilizing Flexcar or other car-sharing programs to make it possible for folks to leave their car at home but still make errands during the day. New ideas like this require folks in HR and at leadership positions within companies to be flexible to the needs of their employees.

So, yeah, our transit options aren’t what they could be. We’re building the light rail system we could have had in the 70’s, and we’re building our first streetcar lines since the 40’s. (This one doesn’t count!) We’ve got catching up to do. Until then, have your transfer ready for the driver or get ready to pay more to park.

Via the General, a message from Tom Wales’ brother-in-law:

Anonymity is a fine thing. Many an evening I have rafted down the Internets Tubes, safe and secure in my anonymity: unafraid to speak up and unafraid of consequences. Toes have been stomped. Feathers ruffled (my tactfulness is not legendary). Well, mea culpa.

Today I risk nakedness, my fig leaf Googleable.

In testimony Thursday, James Comey, former #2 at the Department of Justice under Ashcroft, testified to the House Judiciary Committee (actually brought up first by Rep. Mel Watt (D-NC), while Watt was questioning him) that John McKay, one of the fired USA’s, got in hot water in 2005 for agitating with the bigwigs in DC for more resources in hunting the assassin of Tom Wales, an assistant DA in Seattle killed on October 11, 2001.

Tom was shot a half-dozen times in the neck and head with hollow-point bullets (aka “cop killers””) as he sat at his home computer, answering an email. Sitting as we do, now. He prosecuted white-collar crime in Washington State, and was also a visible and dedicated gun-control advocate. I watched him debate Wayne LaPierre once, on Good Morning America, and thought Tom ate Wayne’s lunch. He headed Washington Cease Fire until murdered with a handgun.

His slaying has never been solved.

The FBI has a team, permanently investigating…they’re on record as saying they know the killer. They released a letter to the press, purportedly from the suspect, and asked the public’s help in identifying him. The FBI has, they say, ruined the suspect’s life, and hassled many a gun owner.

Now I learn through these Internets Tubes that John McKay may have been fired for paying too much attention to the assassination of his fellow federal prosecutor, instead of filing bogus voter-fraud suits.

It appears the DOJ (who sent no reps to Tom’s memorial service, btw, even though he was the first active Federal DA to be murdered, and this just one month after 9/11) was directed to minimize the hunt for Tom’s killer because it would harm the Republican Party’s NRA base, and inflame gun-control advocates.

I don’t speak for the Wales family. Several of them still lose sleep when the case re-makes the news, fearful for the safety of Tom’s children, now grown. And I see their point, though the children are as brave as he.

But if the DOJ is now in the business of ignoring the murders of dedicated prosecutors who spent a career contributing to the community and standing up for the powerless to better win the next election, then it’s time to clean house. If I had been murdered, instead, and my case swept under the rug, Tom would have charged in like an angry wolf.

I married his sister, you see.

And so I ask you, gentle reader, to call or write your Congresspersons, especially if they sit on the Judiciary Committees; demand they ask each DOJ employee, parading through in this shameful affair, what they know or knew of reasons for McKay’s firing.

If this White House is willing to murder Justice for power, we should replace them. Now.

UPDATE:
Tom Wales’ brother-in-law has asked that I post the following correction and clarification:

Monday, I posted re: the unsolved Tom Wales case, and did so in anger. In allowing my anger and resurgent grief sway, I stupidly misstated details that upon reflection deserved more perfect accuracy. No matter the threats to it, or from whence they arise, justice and truth will win out; they must, eventually. I believe that, as Tom did and worked toward. The FBI, DOJ, and law enforcement are filled with public servants as dedicated to justice as Tom. I deeply regret putting my two cents in on a case already so difficult and emotional for so many of them.

To be more specific: the FBI is NOT on record as saying they have but one suspect; though it’s true they have one who is particularly a focus, and has been the subject of public appeals. Also, Mr. Comey only responded to Rep. Watt repeating earlier testimony, as noted in the link. I knew that, and simply erred.

My post showed insufficient respect to Mr. Comey, and to the FBI, and the rank and file at the DOJ, respect I continue to have. My deepest and heartfelt apology for any trouble or confusion I have caused.

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

7PM: Are you a tax and spend… Republican?
Rural communities throughout the state and nationwide are facing an imminent crisis as 60 to 100 year old drinking and waste water systems begin fail… systems they simply can’t afford to repair or replace without state and federal government loans and grants. Isn’t it time for rural Republicans to acknowledge that it was government that built their critical infrastructure, and that only government can replace it?

8PM: Hard to Port
Did you know that the average King County homeowner subsidizes the Port of Seattle and the businesses that use it to the tune of about $100 annually? Port Commission candidate Gael Tarleton joins me for the hour to take your questions on what she wants to do with this hugely important but bizarrely low profile government agency. And I also suppose we’ll talk about the recent Port scandal.

9PM: TBA

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

One of the classic attacks on liberals like me is to berate us as “tax and spend” Democrats — an ironic pejorative in light of the record budget deficits rung up over the past six years of absolute Republican control over the federal government.

But the truth is, I do believe in taxing and I do believe in spending as legitimate and necessary roles of government… and for more things than just killing brown people overseas.

There is still this Reagan-era perception amongst many diehard conservatives that the bulk of our tax dollars goes towards supporting lazy poor people, provoking an angry and visceral reaction to any notion of a tax increase. But in fact one of government’s primary roles is building and maintaining the critical (and sometimes invisible) infrastructure on which our economy and our standard of living depend.

A recent rash of water main breaks in Seattle highlights both the cost and danger of deferred maintenance. The usual knee-jerk, righty comeback is to blame this on incompetent local Democrats, but as an article in today’s Seattle Times highlights, our crumbling system of aging drinking-water and wastewater pipes is a nationwide problem, and a particular crisis for rural (ie, Republican) communities that lack the local tax base to replace or repair this infrastructure on their own.

All over the state — and all over the nation — broken and leaking pipes have many poor rural communities facing similar health threats and economic hardships. It’s been a problem that has been buried for decades. But a crisis point is finally arriving, experts warn. And there’s nowhere near enough government money to go around.

As last Wednesday’s rupture of a water main under Seattle’s University Bridge showed, it’s a problem affecting urban areas, too. But the experts say the difference for such towns as Vader is clear: They don’t have the millions of dollars that big cities have to keep their systems running.

One federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) survey has estimated that Washington state alone needs at least $6.7 billion over 20 years to replace aging drinking-water pipes.

Nationally, the EPA guesses it could cost $300 billion over the next 20 years just for drinking-water pipes, and almost as much to replace failing wastewater lines.

“We have never been in this situation before, where such a vast system of infrastructure is aging like it is,” said Ben Grumbles, an assistant EPA administrator in Washington, D.C. “Water is life, and infrastructure systems are the lifeblood of a community.”

Left purely to free market forces, many of our rural water systems make as little business sense as rural electrification — one of the great triumphs of mid-twentieth century American-style socialism. As their aging infrastructure slowly collapses, driving families and businesses out of the region, the politicians who represent these rural districts should be faced with a choice: abandon the destructive, divisive and dishonest rhetoric of East vs. West, Rural vs. Urban, Republican vs. Democrat, or be prepared to have our state’s urban, Democratic majority greet your plight with the same lack of compassion and empathy with which you greet ours.

Residents of Washington state’s rural, suburban and urban areas all have critical public infrastructure needs — some shared, some not. But whatever the specifics, these needs can best be met by working together, rather than brandishing rigid, ideological swords in a fight to the death over dwindling public resources. At the same time conservative politicians champion the values and heritage of rural life, their anti-tax, anti-government screeds are poisoning the well — literally and figuratively — that made this lifestyle possible. For the past hundred years it was government that built and subsidized the infrastructure (transportation, electrification, irrigation, education, etc.) that allowed agricultural communities to grow and prosper. And only government has the incentive to invest in this infrastructure for the next century and beyond.

As our global food safety crisis makes clear, urban Americans have a vital stake in maintaining the livelihood and lifestyle of our rural neighbors, both out of appreciation and gratitude for the hard labor they put into feeding us, and out of simple, rational self-interest. By pressuring the margins of local farmers and processors, the walmartification of our food industry puts us all at risk. And for all of its obvious commonsense, the growing “Eat Local” movement can never be more than a slogan without local farmers to grow our food.

The explosion in the number of farmers markets throughout the Puget Sound region is as much about maintaining healthy rural communities as it is about healthy eating. Urban consumers have shown a willingness to pay a premium for high-quality fresh produce, knowing that the extra dollars are going directly to local growers. But ironically, it is this urban, progressive community that is most harshly vilified by the right-wing Republicans who represent much of rural Washington.

I believe that there is the political will, statewide, to continue to subsidize the investment in public infrastructure necessary to help Washington’s agricultural communities prosper for another hundred years. But to tap into this consensus the elected officials who represent these rural districts must stop painting state government as the enemy, and vindictively interfering in the ability of urban residents to tax themselves to meet their own infrastructure needs. Every time a rural Republican tells Seattle voters that we should not have the right to tax ourselves to build light rail or choose the means by which SR99 will run through our downtown waterfront, it undermines our support for fixing the leaky pipes beneath the streets of Vader and Tieton and a hundred other rural Washington towns.

Vader’s 2007 budget is a little more than $620,000. Nearly 40 percent — $244,000 — is for the water and sewer system.

Last year, the town replaced a worn-out clay sewer line and repaved Main Street with $1 million in grants and loans.

What the town really needs is a sewage-treatment plant. But “there’s no way 600 people can afford a $6 million sewage treatment plant,” [Mayor Guy] Chastain said.

Yes, governments tax and spend. But I suppose when your only hope of maintaining critical local infrastructure is to appeal for grants and loans from state and federal government, “tax and spend” isn’t such a pejorative.

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

7PM: Am I immoral?
For all intents and purposes, I’m an atheist, meaning… I don’t believe in God. According to recent Newsweek poll, only 68% of Americans believe it is possible for an atheist like me to be moral, and only 29% would vote for one for President, making atheism the least trusted religious, racial or ideological label. Meanwhile, a full thirty percent of the Republican candidates for President totally reject science, proclaiming that they do not believe in evolution.

8PM: Melamine: it tastes just like chicken.
Or is it the other way around? Yesterday we learned that another 20 million chickens are being quarantined after eating melamine-tainted feed, and I’m betting that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Meanwhile, the pet food recall expands on a daily basis. Joining me to discuss the latest is Ben Huh of Itchmo.com.

9PM: TBA

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

It can be tough being both a liberal Democrat and a staunch supporter of the 2nd Amendment. The National Rifle Association doesn’t make this any easier. A group that once concerned itself primarily with gun safety, the NRA has taken a sharp turn to the right over the last twenty years. Sometimes, the position taken by the NRA defy all common sense.

The National Rifle Association is urging the Bush administration to withdraw its support of a bill that would prohibit suspected terrorists from buying firearms. Backed by the Justice Department, the measure would give the attorney general the discretion to block gun sales, licenses or permits to terror suspects.

In a letter this week to Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, NRA executive director Chris Cox said the bill, offered last week by Sen. Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J., “would allow arbitrary denial of Second Amendment rights based on mere ‘suspicions’ of a terrorist threat.”

“As many of our friends in law enforcement have rightly pointed out, the word ‘suspect’ has no legal meaning, particularly when it comes to denying constitutional liberties,” Cox wrote.

NRA flacks like Cox turn into civil libertarians whenever guns are involved. But other constitutional rights? Silence from the gun rights lobby.

Dan Savage:

Gun nuts talk and talk about needing guns to protect the rights and freedoms that all Americans enjoy, but when the rights and freedoms of Americans are under siege, guns nuts are nowhere to be found. I don’t recall seeing any NRA members, for example, ever protesting an assault on the free speech rights of Americans by the feds—or the federal government’s successful efforts to undermine our constitutional protections against government surveillance and unreasonable searches, their attempts to regulate speech on the Internet, limit abortion rights…

So while gun owners are always saying that owning guns is about defending freedom, the only freedom gun owners seem interested in defending with their guns is the freedom to defend their freedom to own guns.

Pro-gun politicians who defend ALL constitutional rights can be hard to find. The only two I know are both from Montana- Gov. Brian Schweitzer and Sen. Jon Tester. Tester, who is totally pro-gun, also favors repealing the Patriot Act. Schweitzer just signed a bill that tells the federal government to go to hell over Real ID.

I’m certain the NRA will continue to be a Republican puppet organization for years to come, but with Democrats like Schweitzer and Tester on the forefront, real civil libertarians can sleep easier.

As I’ve previously suggested, after filing a PDC complaint that cost his party $40,000 in fines, HA regular Richard Pope isn’t the most popular Republican at KCGOP headquarters these days. So it came as no surprise when Richard forwarded a piece of fan mail from former Republican candidate for King County Executive, David Irons.

Mr. Pope

Some people see an injured person or a problem and lend a hand to fix what is broken. These people can take pride in their accomplishments and are frequently thanked by strangers who witness their unselfish act of kindness.

Other people see a problem and throw gas on a smoldering ember thus damaging and/or destroying everything nearby. These people normally live cold and lonely lives.

In your effort to damage others I fear you have destroyed what little reputation you had remaining. It must be lonely sitting on that pedestal you built for yourself.

I personally forgive you for your actions and the manor in which you have so aggressively attack good people. As for your hate, I sorry to say that is likely to continue to consume you for now until eternity.

Thank You

David Irons

How, um… ironic.

Of course, Richard informed the KCRCC of their disclosure violations way back in August of 2006, and only reported them to the PDC three months later, after they continued uncorrected and unabated. And again, in November, he informed them of additional problems, and didn’t report these to the PDC until March, 2007.

To Irons, the fact that his own party was violating the law seems unimportant — Richard went public with a family secret, an apparently unforgivable offense.