According to Holly Armstrong, spokeswoman for the governor, this:
is NOT a report. Then what is it? An eight hundred and fifty page piece of brainstorming?
According to David Dye (WS-DOT’s urban corridor guy), this:
is a “glorified file memo.” Sure, right.
I wonder if Seattle’s legislators, many of whom signed a letter saying they do not support WS-DOT’s ‘rebuild’ option, are going hold somebody accountable over this ignored study.
Oops… I mean “glorified file memo.”
Calling that 850 page report a “file memo” is as appropriate as calling Fraudoire a legitimately elected Governor. Both Fraudoire’s status as an elected Governor and the 850 page report’s status as a “file memo” may be legally correct, but that does not make either morally or politically legitimate.
Awwwww, poor baby! You didn’t have the votes and you wost.
You really should be accustomed to that by now, Richard.
But if you Pubes want to win elections, you’re all going to need more than name recognition.
This is not a report — it is a picture of a report…
Is that THE report or is it just a bunch of documentation that was used to write THE report.
All I see is a photo of a notebook.
1
You are a lawyer. Lawyer’s are trained to think critically and to be able to distinguish between evidence and hyperbole. As you know, hearsay is generally not admissible in court proceedings and conjecture never is. Rossi and his rogues had their chance to offer evidence concerning their allegations. They failed in their endeavor. Your continued discrediting of our governor’s electoral and court victories brings your qualifications as an attorney into question. Move on.
re 1: I can tell you are going off the deep end again.
@ 4 and 5
In an earlier post there is a photo of the cover of the report. It’s hard to make out, but it says what it is.
Ah, c’mon Will — you know the difference between a “report” and a “memo.” A “report” is something that a bunch of people have signed off on. A “memo” is something that nobody has signed off on. Those initials in the margin are everyting. Without ’em, that thick file folder is just words … mere words, as empty as a Thunderbird bottle rolling in the gutter at 1st and Bell …
Richard Pope says:
Calling that 850 page report a “file memo” is as appropriate as calling Fraudoire a legitimately elected Governor. Both Fraudoire’s status as an elected Governor and the 850 page report’s status as a “file memo” may be legally correct, but that does not make either morally or politically legitimate.
02/22/2007 at 9:44 am
—————
Dear Richard: If you want to talk about a screwy election, why don’t you look at the 90,000 legitimate minority voters Jebbie kicked off the rolls in Florida before the 2000 election. How about the New Hampshire, and Ohio convictions of Republican Election Operatives in the last couple years.
Election Fraud is pretty much the only thing Republicons do well. When it comes to governing, they suck big time, and can only run up debts to the sky.
Anyone that still supports, or calls themselves Republicans these days have to ignore so many facts that they should be locked up for living in a fantasy world, and are a threat to themselves, and others.
I am not entirely happy with Democrats, but at least they don’t have to lie about every single issue to impress their supporters.
Fitzgerald goes on record.
http://www.rawstory.com//news/....._0221.html
“There is a cloud over the vice president . . . And that cloud remains because this defendant obstructed justice,” Fitzgerald said.
“Broadening his attack on the White House, Mr. Fitzgerald took a shot at President Bush, indirectly criticizing him for not firing officials implicated in the leaks about the CIA officer, Valerie Plame,” Gerstein wrote. “The prosecutor noted that in 2003 the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, said Mr. Bush would immediately dismiss anyone involved in leaking Ms. Plame’s identity.”
If you want to support the traitors in the White House you are an enemy of everything our founding fathers invisioned for us.
Republicans are America’s worst enenies!!!!!
@11 Richard’s merely having another seizure. He’ll come around in a day or two.
@11 (continued) Kind of like when he slugs somebody in a deposition … he just sorta blanks out … goes catatonic … remembers nothing afterward …
I know it’s not as much fun as passionately ranting, but have any seen the document in it’s entirety? What facts are we discussing here?
Here’s what I see, the document ( I won’t enter the “report” v. “memo” flap) is dated January and is called a “screening level review”. What that typically means is that a number of alternatives are put through a preliminary review to see if any are ruled out immediately. Passing the screen DOES NOT mean an alternative will be later proven feasible, it simply means it warrants further study. We then have a document produced later, presumably after further review which rules out one of the alternatives which passed preliminary muster.
That is one entirely credible explanation.
It could also be proven wrong by content, but I’ve yet to see anyone arguing content.
WillWillWillWillWillWillWillWill
Sorry…..
Can’t stop singing this onenote onenote onenote onenote onenote…….
Howard Hughes built an entire plane only to find that it would not fly. Three ring binders tend to do OK in big earthquakes but do not aid at getting people from place to place.
It’s a nice day Will. Take a walk and get some fresh air.
I see several billion dollars of hard-earned taxpayer dollars on a table…..with consultants & bureaucrats shoveling pile after pile of 100’s into there pockets & friends pockets. By the time all the process & lawsuits have ended, how much will be left to build the “underbudgeted” projects??
ANSWER: Not Enough
SOLUTION: Another tax increase.
And so it goes.
One other question to ponder:
If WSDOT wants us to believe this is not a report……..how can anyone believe them when they throw project estimated cost numbers around??
Keep up the good work!
I think this boondoggle will be our solution for what to do with our short-term, “pie in the sky” surplus.
Piss it away on process.
At the same time as the state seems hell bent on shoving the Giant Viaduct From Hell down our throats, this morning’s Pea-Eye has a piece in which the esteemed head of the Washington State DOT has announced that they’re going to close off most of northbound I-5 through downtown for the month of August to replace the expansion joints. He also declared that we should all get the hell out of the city until they’re done.
Just who the hell do these people think they are, anyway?
BIAW BOZO THE KLOWN: SO YOUR VISION IS OF COURSE AN AUTHORITARIAN LIKE BIAW BUTT BOY DINO LOSSI. A GUY LIKE THAT’LL “GIT ‘ER DONE” BY RAMMING AN UGLY REBUILD DOWN SEATTLE’S THROAT.
DREAM ON.
Mr. C- if you see several billion, get your eyes checked. Hyperbole is one thing, you’re a bit beyond that.
And please, cut the BS over whether it’s a report, a memo, or a note to file. You’re just looking for an agruement without any facts behind you.
Art-
Sorry Bud, but when your infrastructure passes its useful life, major overhaul is necessary. Did you read the story? Which if the repair approaches do you favor? It is ofter a tradeoff between impact to users with a shorter full closure or higher costs with partial closures seeking to maintain some level of service. You can certainly disagree with the choice made, but you cannot deny it’s either one or the other.
Democracy is by nature messy, slow, and inefficient. “Process” is an inherent part of democracy, as is dissent. Fascism is a far more efficient form of government–as we have always heard, Hitler kept the trains running on time. In assailing process, we see which type of government you prefer.
Sorry, Will, but with lots of years of dealing with government (military) paperwork, that thing looks like it could well be nothing more than a file memo.
And a rather short one, at that.
We used to have a saying:
“The world will not die with a bang or a whimper. It will die by being buried in paperwork, and the Navy will be a prime contributor.”
Looks like state government is doing their part, too.
(I still snicker when I remember the change to the “Reduction in Paperwork Report” from three copies filed annually to four copies filed quarterly.)
@15 Speaking of hundreds, Mr. C, how does your washing machine work? What’s inside the rollers that changes a C-note from L & I taxes to Rossi slush funds?
You’ve been away so long I thought Mrs. C. cut you up in the bathtub with a chain saw and fed you to the sand sharks. Been hiding in Switzerland from the IRS?
P.S., I bought another 100 shares of NOV last month at 55 and have already made a thousand bucks on it. Too bad you didn’t get in when you had the chance.
John @ 21
It’s not reallya bout whether it was a memo or a report. The 850 page report found the Hybrid Tunnel feasible, only to see WS-DOT say the complete opposite a month later. WTF?
What about Fraudoire supporting the waste of hundreds of millions of dollars of taxpayer money for the Republican owners of the Seattle Sonics and the Kitsap County NASCAR track?
Isn’t it wonderful, after arguing so hard over a questionable 129 election vote margin, that Fraudoire is turning out to be a Bush-style Republican, in the worst manner in which you folks have caricatured the Bush administration?
At least State Treasurer Mike Murphy knows how to call “BULLSHIT” on these corrupt projects:
“We might as well dispense with calling these things public-private partnerships, because they really aren’t. The private side gets rich. The public side gets screwed.”
Murphy’s position puts him at odds with Gov. Christine Gregoire and Lt. Gov. Brad Owen, who have touted the Sonics and NASCAR proposals as potential economic boons.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....hy22m.html
19 I’m not agruing over whether the I-5 repairs need to be done. I am, however put off somewhat by the attitude. It suggests something of a lack of understanding on the part of our public servants as to just who is working for whom. Is highway repair supposed to be for the benefit of the motorists who use the road and the taxpayers who pay for it (presumably intersecting groups) or for the benefit of the DOT and its contractors?
24 Richard, you have a point. If Gregoire continues in her present vein, she’s likely to find herself a one-term governor.
Not that I take that as any indication that Rossi would have been any better.
Will @ 23-
Read my post @ 13. A screening report, which the January report, per its cover, is, takes a first cut review of alternatives. It excludes some options and refers others on for further work. That additional work should further reduce the number of options. That’s how the process works. THat something is feasible at first cut and rejected later on is how things work.
And as I said above, I could be convinced by the actual reports that the process was misused, but you have not presented any evidence thus far.
Mr. Pope:
While Ms. Gregoire is not exactly my favorite politician, and I strongly disagree with some of her positions, it would be nice if you got those positions correct when blasting her for them.
First, she’s agreed that the NASCAR proposal for Kitsap County is effectively dead. She is asking the NASCAR folks to look into a property down in Lewis County, which the owners are willing to donate for the purpose. This might well be a good deal for Lewis County, as it will bring money and jobs into the area.
You do seem to be correct that she has spoken positively about a new Sonics arena. Personally, I’m against it, and it looks very much like another non-starter. It is quite possible that her opinion is more along the lines of “if the people of the area want to pay for it, I’ll be glad to buy a ticket”. (I won’t, as ticket prices are already absurd.)
My last time at a professional sports stadium was watching a Rainiers game at Cheney Stadium, and I’m opposed to spending a half-billion dollars on a stadium for a game that can be played in any middle-school gymnasium.
I can see some public spending, but that half-billion dollar gold-plated boondoggle is out of the question. If that’s what the Sonics demand in order to stay here for another ten years, then I will wish the Albuquerque Sonics the best of luck.
Weighing in:
I’m not going to pass judgment on a whether a file binder is a “screening report”, a “file”, or some other description, based upon a photograph of the binder. After dealing with environmental remediation reports for a few years, that binder could be just one of those, prepared previously, with a cover letter on top.
And I wonder if someone hasn’t hijacked Richard Pope’s screen name. His explanations are usually more lucid and less subject to rantings. That doesn’t make them any less wrong, but more reasonable.
And I don’t want the Sonics of NASCAR to get a taxpayer subsidy, either, and I’m in favor of the full-fledged tunnel. But anyone who thinks Rossi would be doing better than Greguire is living in a fantasy world. I don’t like everything Greguire does, but if Rossi was in charge, the whole project would be a real-estate development, not a transit issue.
Chris Gregoire is smart. Dino Rossi is not. We made these distinctions on the playgrounds of our youth. Those who promote Rossi as a governor-in-waiting do so for purely ideological reasons, not because he has a damned thing to offer this state. Governing a state is hard work. Sniping at those in charge is easy work.
29 Agreed, now that you mention it, that the posts in this thread with Richard’s name on them seem to be in something other than his usual tone. He usually operates on a level far above the namecalling of jch, puddy and the other trolls. It’s also out of character for him not to have his facts straight.
Richard, if it’s really you, and you, and you’ve had too many cups of coffee or a lousy day, sorry…go home, put on your slippers, hug your daughter and let’s look for a better tomorrow.
I don’t know that Rossi is dumb. It seems in his last couple years in the senate he was trying to play to some supposed knuckle-dragger right-wing power base. The arrogance most likely put off more people than it impressed.
Not much happening in the area today, Will?
@16 How else can they fix the expansion joints? This proves the validity of what I’ve been saying all along: It’s just plain nuts to give up the existing SR-99 through route in favor of a “surface option” because when (not if, but WHEN) I-5 goes out of service, then you’ve got absolutely no means of moving traffic through the city.
@28 Maybe someone ought to ask the folks down in Lewis County if they want NASCAR to bring “money and jobs” into their neighborhood. The problem for them is the jobs don’t pay very much, and somebody else gets the money, while all they get is high property taxes that they left the city to avoid.
As you might imagine, being a rabbit, I have country cousins and frequently visit the undeveloped areas of our state. I got educated about this when I suggested to one of my rural pals (who happens to live in Lewis County) that development would be a good thing for rabbits like him because it would bring “money and jobs” into the county. I damn near got punched in the nose! After he got done pulling all the fur out of my cottontail, and settled down after a while, he explained it to me. It works like this: The money that city people cart into the county gets carted off by other city people, and the people of modest means living there see nothing but higher taxes. When outsiders come in and start building $500,000 homes next door to your $50,000 house, guess what happens to your taxes?!
No argument from me. That’s why they have elected county commissioners and the like. Hopefully they understand the needs of Lewis County better than I do, or even Ms. Gregoire.
61% of dot’s budget is for Unsound transit, which will carry 2.5% of the people.
Now that makes frickin sense doesn’t it….NOT
People criticize me for criticizing the Governor, BUT LOOK:
The editorial writers of Horse’s Ass are already making the same criticisms of Gregoire that I am making:
1. Gregoire involved in Viaduct replacement fiasco
2. Gregoire suppressing state study on smaller tunnel
3. Gregoire supporting 100’s of millions to Sonics
4. Gregoire supporting 100’s of millions to NASCAR
5. Gregoire supporting high interest for payday lenders
Except that I call things like they are. And I am not afraid to mention her name.
Gregoire also failed to address the $5.973 BILLION underfunded State Pension Fund….in essence furthering the end-run around our Constitution re: State’s borrowing.
UNDERFUNDING==BORROWING