Well, I suppose that’s one way to deal with education funding at a time of record state budget deficits:
In an effort to bridge a $700 million budget shortfall, Republican state Sen. Chris Buttars has put forth a plan to eliminate 12th grade in high school…
Of course, that’s just one Republican state legislator, and yeah, it’s Utah we’re talking about, so I guess it wouldn’t be fair to brand all Republicans with the same crazy stick, but when your party is philosophically opposed to raising taxes under any circumstances, this is the type of, um, creative proposals you’re gonna come up with.
Republican priorities at work.
Democratic priorities
If bus tunnel video tapes embarrass local Democratic political leaders, let’s take away the public’s right to see any future videotaped assaults:
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seat.....194478.asp
Not to mention being philosophically in favor of ignorance.
Why isn’t there anyone lobbying for education? .. not for teachers (or professors) but for the obvious NEED we have to educate our young?
Can anyhone imagine China, Brazil, France, Cuba, Canada, or Israel seriously discussing decreasing THEIR efforts at education?
The US looks more and more like a failed African Republic. maybe we should never have gotten our freedom.
And if you go to the LA Times story on this, you’ll find out that the bill sponsor “has since toned down the idea, suggesting instead that senior year become optional for students who complete their required credits early. He estimated the move could save up to $60 million, the Salt Lake Tribune reported.”
http://www.latimes.com/news/na.....6102.story
@4 In other words, after tooting his horn and realizing his colleagues and constituents were throwing rocks instead of flowers, the grandstanding chickenshit retreated back into his hole.
RIP Doug Fieger, lead singer of the Knack.
http://music-mix.ew.com/2010/0.....ck/?hpt=C2
re 6: You are correct , sir! He is dead.
Fatal Crash of Helicopter Owned By GOP Figure
Authorities are waiting for identification of bodies to determine whether Thomas J. Stewart, a Washington state business and political figure, was killed in the crash of a helicopter owned by his firm.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ash15.html
Stewart owns Services Group of America, which was one of Washington’s largest privately held businesses until he moved it to Arizona in 2006 to avoid inheritance taxes.
The Seattle City Council angered Stewart by refusing to allow him to build a helipad on his West Seattle office building. Stewart retaliated by secretly funding an initiative to change how council members are elected. He was caught and fined $62,000 for campaign law violations.
Stewart was caught again in campaign law violations after using employees to launder campaign money to Republican candidates. He was fined $5 million and sentenced to home detention and community service in a homeless shelter.
Stewart frequently hosted GOP events at his Vashon Island estate. After he moved to Arizona, the estate was put on the market with an asking price of $125 million.
Notice how the Times story of Stewart only blamed him moving to Arizona on the state inheritance tax? Figures that Blethan’s Times would jump to that conclusion.
Far more important causes were him getting upset that the State and City kept penalizing him for breaking the law in trying to use his money to buy elections, or simply the desire of thousands of Washingtonians to move to warmer climates upon retirement.
Of course, at the rate the Blethan’s are running the Times into the ground, within the next five years they won’t have to worry about an inheritance tax in any state.
China Buys Australia
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ina15.html
While U.S. students are struggling to pass basic ninth-grade math and science by the 12th grade, and students throughout the industrialized world are passing them by, it figures that a Republican legislature would try to cut a year off the process.
And you can’t blame this on Democratic-controlled school systems. You don’t get more Republican than Utah.
Let’s see–
The Democrats control the House, Senate, Presidency/Governorship Nationally and in Washington State.
Since they are in charge, shouldn’t we focus on THEIR priorities and governing?
It’s not a very good report card–
Monday, February 15, 2010
Even your brainless dimwit Patty Murray is struggling if Rossi runs against her–
Monday, February 15, 2010 Email
@1 It so happens that Senate Bill 6431 has both Democratic and Republican sponsors.
AP:
“In an effort to bridge a $2.6 billion budget revenue shortfall, Republican state Rep. Richard DeBolt has put forth a plan to eliminate Wednesday.”
@10 That might explain recent actions of the government Down Under to impose some surprising restrictions (including mandatory Internet filtering) in what’s been generally regarded as a sort of “anything-goes” society. Maybe Beijing’s hinted that they’d rather not have all those exchange students and visiting businessmen get accustomed to freedoms they don’t get back home.
@9 Stewart, aided by Washington’s lack of a personal income tax, spent a lifetime amassing a huge fortune and then moved his fortune to Arizona (which has no inheritance tax) to escape paying a penny of Washington inheritance tax.
The guy is a bloodsucker who milked our state for all it was worth, then lit out for Arizona to milk theirs, and avoided having to pay taxes in either state.
@14
You are right, it has 4 Democrats and 1 Republican.
@13 Yes! Yes! Yes! I want a Rossi-Murray matchup! I’ll even send Rossi a modest contribution if it’ll persuade that loser to run against Patty!
@16 Note the article says the Chinese government ordered Chinese youths studying in Australia to participate in anti-Tibet demonstrations.
If the Aussies aren’t careful, China will annex their country, and require them all to study Mao’s Little Red Book.
@18 It’s customary for sponsorship of bipartisan bills to be roughly equal to the parties’ proportion of seats.
13 Cyn
Senator Murray has more that $8 million in the bank already for the campaign.
On the Republican side, the NRSC has pledged to steer clear of contested primaries, which this defnitely will be, and whoever wins the Republican primary will have already spent a boatload of money and Patty will have spent nada.
Head to head polls mean nothing until the GOP primary has spoken. The question would be, can Dino beat the other Republicans? He has a reputation as a moderate–can he beat a teabagger in the Party of Crazy?
Republicans:
Who do you like in the 2010 US Senate primary in WA?
Looks like Daddy Love hasn’t learned…
Independent Peeps love being called “teabaggers”. Somehow they remember this when it comes time to vote for “progressives”. Y’all are 3-for-3 so far.
24 Pud
Asserting somehitng is real interesting. WHhen will you prove it? Show us the polling that proves that independent voters don’t like being called teabaggers.
And further, you might show when and how the fuck a so-called “independent” would EVER think that they were included in a statement about “the Party of Crazy.”
You see, I know who I mean, they know who I mean, and you know who I mean. Don’t you?
24
And Pud, I am guessing that by “3-for-3” you mean that you think the two governorships and the MA Senate seat were three Decmoratic losses unmitigated by any Republican losses.
Perhaps you have forgotten about NY-23 and about CA-32. the former changing from GOP to Dem for the first time since the U.S. Grant administration. Perhaps you have forgotten that those two were part of the 20 of the past 29 House special elections that the Republicans have lost, dating back to January 2003. Perhaps you have forgotten the March 2008 upset victory in which Republicans lost the seat belonging to former Speaker Dennis Hastertor May of that year, when Democrats snatched long-time GOP-held seats in Louisiana and Mississippi. Seems like you don’t remember much.
Nor do you like to engage on the issues. Do YOU think Dino Rossi can win a Republican primary in this state against a less-moderate, more extreme conservative candidate?
BTW, Scott Brown in MA never even called himself a Republican–he used the Dino Rossi “stealth” mode. Let’s see if he can hold the seat in MA when he is up for election in two years and has a GOP voting record to run on.
Scott Brown won by 5% because independents and unaffiliated voters (you know the tea baggers) rejected your tea.
Ummm No… The Republican and Conservative Parties self destructed over being too liberal and the Dummocrapt won. CA-32 was a Dummocraptic seat in a Dummocraptic location.
Good try Daddy Love. Did you fix any bugs for Bug Tuesday? Were the correctly regression tested? Did WinSE approve them?
@26…so your saying that all those proud progrissives living the “liberal lion’s” backyard are too stupid to figure out that one candidate was a D and the other was an R?
hhmm…interesting hypothesis….
The Funniest Line of the Day from Daddy Love. Puddy will let the Boston Globe clear the anally retentive C# code from your arschloch…
Any voting that happened in 2008 was before the Tea Parties and the dope of change happening in 2009. Now that peeps have that bile taste in their mouth, things are a changing all right.
lebowski,
Never underestimate the confusion in the mind of Daddy Love.
@17 “The guy is a bloodsucker”
Well, he was…
Now he’s just another dead guy, all of whose wealth (which his potential inheritors are no doubt girding for battle over) ain’t gonna do him any good at St. Peter’s check-in counter.
@31 Media sources confirm that Stewart was killed in the crash, along with his wife, youngest daughter, and personal pilot.
Helicopters are dangerous. All you have to do is look at them. They don’t have any wings. The idea of a propeller turned sideways holding you up is ridiculous. They can’t possibly fly. That’s why helicopters are only suitable for military personnel, traffic reporters, and other people who are expendable.
Evan Bayh’s senate seat.
That means she’s ready to jump like bye-bye Bayh. He has $13 million in a campaign slush fund that’s cush enough to catch his fall.
And about 12th Grade … Is is too late to send this incompetent administration back to school
Or could we at least get a peek at the president’s unredacted grades from the Pepperdine madrassa?
Bad Taste Humor Alert:
Maybe they shoulda hired Jan Micheal Vincent and Ernest Borgnine to fly the Airwolf instead..
with the current dipshits in charge, they would have tried Himmler, Tojo, et al in district court….
32: Does this mean you won’t have a Republican Party Picnic to hop around any more?
And more than a few of my first-responder brothers and sisters who gave their lives while choppering in to save lives.
rhp6033 @#9, this is from today’s PI http://blog.seattlepi.com/seat.....194514.asp
So I don’t think the Times was jumping to conclusions. The company said they moved to avoid the estate tax.
Or let Borgnine and Tim Conway float them around Arizona in a PT boat.
Deluded rhp asserts that, back in the day, George W. Bush was defending Texas from Vietnam.
That’s false, vicious, and defamatory. GWB was defending Texas airspace from incursions by the Evil Empire of Oklahoma.
@41 “GWB was defending Texas airspace from incursions by the Evil Empire of Oklahoma.”
Thanks. I wondered what the hell he did with his $1 million of taxpayer-financed fighter pilot training. Now I understand.
@40 Did the Times mention that Stewart lived here for 40 years to avoid state income taxes?
27 Pud
You seem to be saying that crazy teabagger Doug Hoffman in NY-23 was too liberal. That’s pretty funny.
As for CA 32: Special election. Low turnout. perfect chance for a Republican upset. But no can do, right? The campaign was fought on national issues. With Obama in office. After the stimulus bill. The Republican didn’t win. Sure, you can ignore whatever won’t fit your narrative. After all, ignoring reality in favor of a preconceived narrative is what you guys do best.
As for your Globe comment @29, where in there did Scott Brown refer to himself as a Republican? Oh, that’s right. He didn’t.
Yes, interesting hypothesis. If only I had said anything remotely similar.
However, huge swaths of people in every state, including MA, who are not part of a political blog comment thread are neither very interested in nor very educated about politics. They know only what they see or hear in our media, and not always much of that. Also, few people pay a lot of attention to politics over the Christmas and New Year’s season, EVEN if they have to vote soon. So when a nice-looking fella tells them only the poll-tested “moderate” statements such as that MA “needs an independent thinker,” or irrelevancies like “I drive a truck,” people get all warm and fuzzy without seriously considering what a 100% Republican vote in the Senate could mean to the health insurance problems of MA residents (oh, but they don’t care, right? Because Borwn already voted to give MA residents the universal health care he now wants to deny the rest of the USA). Couple that with Martha Coakley’s stunning gaffes (like the Clemens thing), and you have a recipe for an upset.
However, as I said, in two years he stands for election again. I don’t believe that he can vote independently from the Republicans for the next two years, and Republicans are very, very unpopular. I would be not surprised but shocked if he can win re-election the next time around, when a much better Democratic candidate can ride the coattails of a pretty popular president being re-elected.
Really though, you might want to consider responding to what I actually say instead of what you wish I had said.
27 Pud
You think I am a programmer? That misconception is right in line with all of the other things you seem to be woefully and abysmally misinformed about.
Apropos of goldy’s attempt to conjoin St. Karl Marx with the canonical gospels, check Robert Conquest’s old book about the Marxist terror famine in the Ukraine in the dirty ’30s.
Uncanonical “free” market capitalism was on the ropes over here, but it could have been worse. We could have been over there.
@40 First of all, Washington doesn’t have an inheritance tax.
Second, the company didn’t move to avoid Washington’s estate tax. Steward moved the company to avoid Washington’s estate tax.
Third, Washington does not have the nation’s highest estate state by a long shot. While state-by-state comparisons are difficult because the ultimate tax is affected by both the exemption and tax rate, Washington has one of the larger estate tax exemptions at $2,000,000; several states begin taxing estates at $675,000 or other figures under $1 million.
Fourth, as I pointed out above, Stewart gamed the tax system by running his business from Washington for several decades to avoid state income taxes, then when he got older he moved his business and residence to Arizona to avoid state estate taxes.
Fifth, only 9 states have lower overall taxation of their citizens than Washington, at the $60,000 and $100,000 household income levels, so it’s very difficult to argue that Washingtonians are overtaxed because the fact is people in 40 other states pay higher state taxes than we do.
http://spreadsheets.google.com.....#038;gid=3
http://spreadsheets.google.com.....#038;gid=2
@47 The “terror famine in the Ukraine in the dirty ’30s” had nothing to do with Marxism. It resulted from Stalin confiscating the grain harvests and selling them in export markets to raise cash for Russia’s industrialization.
@45…..I responded to what you implied – dont try and squirm out of it now…
Perhaps, on the other hand, people are more on the ball than you think, and decided they had had enough of the lies and BS coming out of DC – and this was their way of saying “ENOUGH”.
I would also surmise that the liberal lion was in office so long simply via name recognition – and this vote helps support that.
Conquest, Harvest of Sorrow, page 129. Ah, yes, the magic market’s invisible hand reaching in to incite class struggle. It’s what gives laissez faire capitalism a bad name.
Conquest, pages 114-115.
Hope this helps to remedy the deficiencies of your knowledge and the effluvia of your assertions.
Lenin, unable to make Marxism work, extablished the interim NEP to keep (some) people fed while consolidating the revolution. NEP held on until 1927-1928 while Stalin was trying to consolidate Stalin.
So … we’ll give you half a gold star on your forhead: Lenin and Stalin did seize grain under the NEP regime. Maybe some grain went to exports, although Conquest doesn’t mention it.
But Marxist class struggle via central planning began before the ‘dekulak’ terror, collectivization, and the terror famine.
Make a note of it.
Joe The Plumber Sacks McCain
I love watching GOPers eat each other:
“‘I don’t owe him s—,’ Wurzelbacher said about McCain over the weekend. ‘He really screwed my life up is how I look at it.'”
http://www.politicsdaily.com/2.....n-used-me/
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Publicity-hound Wurzelbacher screwed his own life up. Btw, has he paid his Arizona traffic tickets yet, or is there still an arrest warrant out for his ass?
@50 “had enough of the lies and BS coming out of DC – and this was their way of saying “ENOUGH”.”
Does this mean you guys aren’t Republicans anymore?
No Herr Goebbels Himmler Dumb Bunny@55… These are retiring Senate and Congressional Dummocrapts.
Au contraire Daddy Love Puddy never inferred…
The woman Dede whatever was a libtardo republican who threw her jockstrap to the liberal person. That’s why you think it’s funny…. you are continually confused when it isn’t C code.
Daddy Love,
Puddy thought you were a programmer based on what other peeps mentioned about you. Since in your ignorant state you chose not to correct peeps and tell us what your “do” at Microsoft it was hanging out there.
Lata dude!
Where have all the intelligent people gone? Why is it so hard to see right from wrong? Why is it that so many elected officials find it beyond their means to do the sensible right thing, naturally? We can raise taxes, at the appropriate time. How about when people are back to work? Why don’t we make Seattle and Tacoma the world class seaports that they should be? Why don’t we make this state friendly to businesses so that they will stay here and not leave? Why do we have politicians in Olympia that couldn’t pass accounting 101 making state budgets? Maybe I’m just old fashioned, but I always thought that a budget was based on how you will spend the money you have??? Folks, there is a way to put a lid on this lunacy, but you have to speak up. Otherwise you will never be able to close your purse or wallet. There will always be a hand in the way.