Former Seattle Mayor Charles Royer shows us why he should remain retired from politics:
The King County Executive’s job has become officially non-partisan, thanks to a voter initiative. In seeking the interim job, however, Royer discovered that the council still caucus and think as party members.
“They have not yet learned that they are non-partisan,” he said.
And I keep telling my dog and my cat that they are members of the same family, but they have not yet learned that they are non-enemies.
I mean, duh-uh.
Why would a cat want anything to do with a dog? Why would anyone want anything to do with a dog? Dogs are useless! All they do is chase rabbits and pollute the grass with their shit! They should be exterminated! We don’t need any damn dogs.
In the “stupid political quote of the day” category, former GOP congressman John Kasich in announcing his run for Ohio governor promised to “right the ship” and blamed incumbent Democratic Gov. Ted Strickland for the state’s loss of 297,000 jobs in the Bush Depression. Kasich, whose most recent job was investment banker at Lehman brothers, said he plans to phase out Ohio’s state income tax.
Arrests In Wal-Mart Shooting
Police say it was an inside job and have arrested a Wal-Mart employee. (Source: KING 5 TV News)
Rog –
Joel just wrote a column about the BIAW!!?!
http://blog.seattlepi.com/seat.....170272.asp
You HATE the BIAW. It poses a massive threat – red level . . . red level . . .
The BIAW is happy about what the legislature did, and looking forward to taking another seat on the Supreme Court next year.
Go ballistic Rog!! Whip the true liberals into a freakin’ frenzy. The BIAW is the antichrist – so sayeth Rog.
I think it’s time for Democrats to reclaim “non-partisanship.”
Back when Republicans had their super-majority, remember that calls for “non-partisanship” always meant Democrats giving up and allowing (or even becoming complicit with) Republicans to run roughshod over labor, the poor, the Constitution, and civil liberties.
@4 Tom McCabe isn’t smart enough to be the Anti-Christ. C’mon, seriously, does this look like the Anti-Christ?
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....177066.jpg
Nah. Just a run-of-the-mill doofus.
6
He looks a lot like the next chair of the RNC. By the time the next election comes around for that post, there should be about $124 in the RNC’s bank account and 23 people still considering themselves Republicans. So, this guy’s got a good chance of running that organization, if you ask me.
I know plenty about hopping, but not very much about flying. Curious about whether Air France Flight 447 was blown up by a terrorist bomb, I wondered if thunderstorms could bring down a jetliner. So I did some internet research.
There’s only 1 airplane in the U.S. designed to fly into thunderstorms. It’s a modified ex-military-trainer T-28 owned by the University of South Dakota and operated for meteorological research. The modifications include armor plating on wing leading edges and control surfaces, an extra-thick cockpit (so 3-inch hail hitting it at 2225 mph can’t break it), and double fusing of electrical circuits to keep lightning hits from taking out the sensors, computers, and communications gear.
The plane flies in and out of storm cells, usually staying inside for only a few minutes at a time. In the storm, the pilot can’t see anything because of canopy icing; the plane is steered as directed by a ground controller. This type of aircraft is called a “storm penetration airplane.”
I also learned that flying into hurricanes is “a piece of cake” compared to flying into thunderstorms, according to experienced pilots. Thunderstorm flying is a lot trickier, with higher potential for damage to the aircraft.
So here’s what could happen to an airplane that hasn’t been modified for storm penetration that flies into a thunderstorm. A lightning strike could take out the plane’s computers, automatic pilot, and fly-by-wire flight controls. Hail could smash through the cockpit windows, killing the pilots instantly and causing rapid cabin depressurization; hail also could damage the control surfaces, causing loss of control of the airplane.
In short, it doesn’t take a bomb to bring down an Airbus; a thunderstorm can indeed suffice if it’s severe enough and the plane flies directly into it. The question is, why would experienced airline pilots do that?
@7 If he runs it like he runs the BIAW, we’ll be seeing RNC ads about sex predators. Hey Tom, how did that strategy work for you in the last election? After law enforcement lined up behind Gregoire?
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
@4 Of course we have a problem with the disconnet between rank-and-file Democratic voters and the Democratic Party poobahs who run things in this state — this legislative session was all the proof that anyone needs. Bottom line is, with the Democrats we have in this state, we needs Republicans? This comment posted under Joel’s article says it all:
“Republicans like Democrats running governments. The Democrats raise the money, and spend it on Republicans.
“Look at Sound Transit: regressive sales taxes collected by Democrats in huge amounts, spent on multinational Republican-headed securities underwriters and other financial institutions, big law firms, huge construction contractors, BNSF, big engineering firms, and concrete and steel suppliers. Same with Brightwater. Same with WSDOT and its tunneling plans. Same with the big corporations that get tax breaks from the Democratic party controlled legislature.
“Republicans can’t get enough Democratic-run governments in this state. BIAW is just a small player in the anti-progressive pantheon that is thrilled with how the Democrats run the state and local governments around here.”
But what can you do about a legislator like Frank Chopp when his opponent is someone like Mark Griswold, who believes terrorist attacks against American airline passengers are a useful GOP election strategy?
“Congratulations Speaker Pelosi, now let the bombs fall where they may. My prediction: terror attack on domestic soil passenger aircraft within the next six months. Casualties in the 2-300 range. And, unfortunately, maybe that’s just what we need. It’s obvious people don’t remember what happened 5 years ago. Posted by FullContactPolitics [a/k/a Mark Griswold, on Sound Politics] at November 8, 2006 10:52 AM”
I mean, with opponents like that, you’ve got no choice but to wish that Chopp, despite his defects, had gotten all 100% of the votes instead of only 85%.
@8
Wind shear and turbulence can tear a plane apart in the air. Thunderstorms have some very severe updrafts and downdrafts which is part of why they form hail and tornadoes.
@10
With top-two Chopp’s general election opponent doesn’t necessarily need to be a Republican and given the popularity of the GOP in Seattle probably won’t be if there are any other serious candidates in the race.
Roger @ 6:
I’ve seen pictures of airliner cockpits penetrated by bird strikes, with feathers all over the place. If a bird can do that, imagine what an encounter with baseball-sized hail can do.
As for “why”, most pilots feel that they can either go over the thunderstorms or “thread themselves between” thunderstorm columns, and do so on a routine basis. In the continental U.S., a particularly bad patch of thunderstorms might result in a “weather delay” which holds up the aircraft at it’s departing airport and disrupts flight schedules all over the country for a day.
An international pilot crossing the ocean might not know the severity of the storms until he/she encounters them. A pilot who turns back after three or four hours into a ten or twelve-hour flight might have a hard time making the airline believe it was necessary – especially if other flights successfully ran the gauntlet.
After all, turnign back is going to result in at least a one-day flight delay for lots of angry passengers, and management has their schedules to keep! But pilots have the final say on safety issues, and they should resist any management pressure which could jeapardize safety.