Initiative 1029 is passing by a lopsided 73-27 percent margin, and how do the editors at the Seattle Times celebrate this exercise in direct democracy?
The Legislature and the governor should exercise their right to overturn this initiative immediately. That’s a tall order, because it would require two-thirds vote of both houses if lawmakers opt to do it within two years of passage.
Hear that? The Times thinks three quarters of its readers are idiots, easily deceived by an “artfully worded ballot measure.”
I’ve long argued that the intiative process is a crappy way to write legislation, and I don’t doubt that I-1029 might have benefited from a more deliberative process. But for a paper that routinely defends anti-tax, anti-government, anti-labor initiatives as inviolate expressions of “the will of the people,” this editorial reads as a masterful stroke of unselfconcious hypocrisy.
Had the execrable and unworkable I-985 passed on Tuesday, even by the slightest of margins, would the Times have demanded that the Legislature exercise its “right” to overturn the initiative? How about the blatantly unconstitutional and anti-democratic I-960, that passed by a narrow 51-49 percent margin, yet requires a two-thirds majority for any tax or fee increase? Would the Times cheer a legislative effort to exercise their “right” to overturn that initiative?
I don’t think so.
So be forewarned. The next time the Times editors defend an initiative or the initiative process by cynically appealing to “the will of the people,” I’m going to shove today’s editorial so far up Fairview’s fanny they’ll have newsprint coming out of their mouths.
“The Times thinks three quarters of its readers are idiots, easily deceived by an ‘artfully worded ballot measure.'”
At least some of their readers are idiots, and they can point to the hay Reichert made of what kind of Harvard degree Burner has (implication: none) as empirical evidence of that.
It’s tempting to think the Times editorial board suffers from an arrogance problem.
Of course, Frank Blethen’s real problem with I-1029 is that SEIU is behind it, and Frankie dislikes unions only slightly less than inheritance taxes. Given the election outcome, he and his ilk are gonna get a bellyful of both. Frankie had a bad day on Tuesday.
Frank is an idiot. Even SEIU people are telling me Gregoire won’t fund this. The revenue shortfall, you know.
NOTE TO GOLDY: DO YOU THINK WE CAN TAKE THE ROSSI PHOTO OFF THE FRONT PAGE NOW?
Time to move on as he is out of politics for ever.
I mean really, we have had to put up with that smarmy mug for long enough.
Latest Missouri Tallies
Missouri is the only state whose electoral votes are still up in the air. Here are the latest totals from the Missouri SoS website:
McCain – 1,442,673 49.4%
Obama – 1,436,814 49.2%
That’s mighty close, and I have no idea how the uncounted ballots break down, but based only on these numbers my guess is Obama’s final tally will be 364, not 375, EVs. But that’s good enough for government work.
I printed out the picture of the Dino-Sore and used it as a SCARY Halloween mask!!
Now it’s up on my DART-BOARD!!!!
Bwaaa Haaaa Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa
Next up for the Times overturningthewillofthepeople-wise: Telling legislators to suspend the minimum wage increases. The Eastern WA newspapers are already starting to editorialize as such. The Times can’t be far behind.
Given that this was a significant issue in the Governor’s race, I think the election result is another vote of confidence in the indexed minimum wage.
Them Dems need to start actively countering the conservative “convention wisdom” on issues like this. Higher minimum wages DO NOT cost jobs. There is no real evidence that our state’s high minimum wage has done so. And in fact, higher wages tend to support local economies and small businesses, cushioning the impact of the national recession.
Furthermore, who decided (besides Gregoire, Rossi and everybody else) that “Now, during an economic downturn, is not the time to raise taxes”?! The voters in King, Pierce and Snohomish didn’t agree when offered an opportunity to extend Sound Transit and CREATE SOME GOOD JOBS in the process.
The way Obama and Gregoire can best spur our economy out of recession is to INVEST IN INFRASTRUCTURE (just like FDR did). I submit to all that the biggest single reason that Washington has not suffered as much as other states to date is that in recent years our legislators made unprecedented capital investments in school construction and the like, while voters/legislators also passed the gas-tax increases to fund road repair and building. That has created and maintained a lot of good, middle-class construction jobs, kept those people spending money in their local communities, and kept the tax revenue flowing as best it could during hard times.
We need MORE of that, not less, in response to an economic downturn. Prop. 1’s passage is a step in the right direction (although the Seattle Corporate Times may also have heartburn with our wisdom on that one, too.)
Discuss.
Why does anyone bother to read Times editorials??
Marky @9,
Fodder for ridicule?
I’m too lazy to look it up, but didn’t Frank’s fishwrapper also demand that the legislature (or somebody) reject the “will of the people” when
theywe decisively rejected the initiative to repeal Washington’s estate tax?The Times is of course massively hypocritical when it comes to voter initiatives, although to be fair I think they would have been just as vehement if I-985 has passed, considering how many times they editorialized against it.
Doesn’t change the fact that this is an insanely poor initiative and the Times, refreshingly, is right. I-1029 is an SEIU money grab that they could bully enough legislators into supporting in the 2008 session.
Those shifty reds in the service employees union managed to fool all these folks too.
From the editorial
Ya’ see that, those union socialists can even vote in the state legislature!
Do you know why I voted for 1029? Because I used to work in the industry (back in Texas when I was just a young thing…stop snickering, it wasn’t that long ago). I know just how hard the owners of nursing homes work to get around training regulations, to keep people on the floor that are ill-trained and ill-suited to caring for any vulnerable population. The abuses that I saw soured me for life on the whole industry.
There needs to be strong oversight when working with dealing with vulnerable populations, with regular training and retraining. That’s why I voted for the initiative.
The Times just announced more layoffs last week. That catbox liner is shrinking like a Nooksack dipped scrotum.
Who cares about the Times. Why aren’t you complaining about the lawsuits in California who are trying to overturn the people’s decision for a second time.
@16 Slingshot: Ouuchh! Your prose is literally ricocheting off the bits on my computer. Any more sarcasm and that computer will wilt.
by the way – WTH is a nooksack dipped scrotum?
Even my kids noticed that the Business section morphed into the front page and the entire small-minded paper has shrunk into a comics section (incluidng living and “style”, a sports section (big) and a front page dominated by AP and other wire/newspaper buys.
The Local section usually has a big picture, some hired editorials (the obligatory right winger like Krauthammer) and occasionally some trenchant times observation.
Not much of real substance there.
… inviolate expressions of the ‘will of the people’ …
It isn’t raining rain, you know, it’s raining inviolates. Or maybe violence, if you’re trying to overturn Prop 8’s will of the people in CA, an overturn (call ACLU! find a friendly fascist judge in a long black dress!) you’ll probably approve.
Nooksack dipped scrotum? Say what?
Is that another slap at Little Ms. Moosedrool, mayor of Matanooska Thunderfuck? What will you bullies do when you don’t have President Palin to kick around any more?
Speaking of “news”papers & Sarah P, wasn’t it HA that stopped the presses a few weeks ago to retail newsprint lies about Palin’s “unlawful” firing of a govt hack?
Why, yes, it was.
She did nothing unlawful. Heard a couple days ago that she did nothing unethical, whatever unethical means. So maybe lying liar Goldstein should grovel, snivel, beg forgiveness, and kiss Palin’s Alaska hillbilly ….. ring. (A ring rung up on an RNC credit card.)
@15
Yep!
You need a bachelors (masters preferred) degree to work with an autistic kid in a school. When that kid turns 21 and needs housing you need a G.E.D., to not have committed too horrid of a crime and to take a 34 hour fundamentals of care care class, that HAS FLAT FUCKING NOTHING ABOUT AUTISMIN IT (I’ve taken the class) to work with that same kid.
I’d say that some updating is in order.
Denial is a river in Egypt. The Nooksack is a river in Washington State. It’s source is the Cascades range glaciers. Therefore it’s cold. I don’t have to explain what happens to the bob & tackle in cold water, do I?
@22, what the fuck are you talking about?
I hope the trolls will partake of the newly obtained rights Prop. 1000 has afforded them. A stiff dose of 9mm applied behind the ear would do them well.
@22. “Heard a couple days ago that she did nothing unethical,”
That would be her own commission? Yeah. That would be the one.
” …whatever unethical means.”
I realize that on the right you have some difficulties with that one. I’d try to help, but it’s clear that you’re unteachable.
@23
“HAS FLAT FUCKING NOTHING ABOUT AUTISMIN IT”
should read
“HAS FLAT FUCKING NOTHING ABOUT AUTISMIN IN IT” of course. I’m on a roll with the typos today.