– I’m planning to follow the City Attorney’s race pretty closely this year. Tom Carr has always struck me as a disingenuous hack, but Josh has some concerns about the Holmes campaign. Even with those concerns, I feel compelled to support Holmes in this race, especially when he runs against someone who claims to be against prison overcrowding yet tries to send bar employees to jail for not properly checking id’s.
– A number of California TV stations are refusing to air ads in support of marijuana legalization despite the fact that 56% of the state supports legalizing marijuana and the Governator has asked to have an open debate on the subject.
– Mother Jones has devoted its latest issue to the drug war. This story about a Mexican reporter trying to seek asylum in the United States after he reported on corruption in the Mexican Army is chilling. Contrast that with the work of legendary moron Ruben Navarrette Jr, who safely cheers on the entire corrupt mess from the comfort of his San Diego home.
– The story of Eric Frimpong is not that well-known yet, and I’m struggling to understand why. It’s the story of a young man from Ghana who was destined to play professional soccer, but who is now serving a six-year prison term in California for a rape that he almost certainly did not commit.
– The overly aggressive police raid on San Diego Congressional candidate Francine Busby’s fundraiser was sparked by a neighbor who appears to have called in a bogus 911 complaint.
– One of the reasons why alcohol prohibition lasted for only a short amount of time was because people remembered the time before it and could easily see the progression towards more crime that it brought. In Copenhagen, the same thing is happening. Up until 2003, a small section of the city called Christiania tolerated cannabis and hashish sales. Since 2003, when the city cracked down, the drug trade has spread across the city, creating more crime. Now, 59% of Copenhagen residents want Amsterdam-style coffeeshops.
Lee:
Holmes is not qualified to be City Attorney. Carr is. Sorry.
@1
On what basis is Holmes not qualified to be City Attorney?
@2…C…
Why is he qualified? What is his resume? What are his legal accomplishments and experience?
It’s not up to anyone, ivan included, to have to prove a candidate is unqualified – there is no presumption of qualification. If you support a candidate, you have to argue his case and convince voters that he should be supported.
The Piper
@piper
there’s two definitions of qualified. The nasty whispering campaign is that Holmes isn’t qualified under the city charter to run. That, of course, is not true. Now, if Ivan wants to talk about the other “qualified”, which is about, efficacy and experience, then let’s go!
I’d be happy to discuss facts, but will not let the whispering stand unrebutted.
Ivan stood at the microphone at the 34th district and said Holmes was running an ugly campaign using polls and push polls. Not true. So I think it would be best to let Ivan speak for himself.
Unfortunatley, there’s so much crap you have to parse one at a time.
Hey trolls! How do you global warming deniers like this fucking ICE AGE we’re having? Phew!
@5t…RR…
Just balancing out the gawd-awful winter we had where the streets didn’t get plowed.
Isn’t that right, Sandeep?
The Piper
@6 Why should the streets get plowed? Why on earth do you anti-government types expect the streets to get plowed? Who do you think plows the streets, anyway? Little snow fairies?
From Publicola: “3. Why are we spending $4.2 billion on a waterfront highway tunnel that will increase global warming and siphon money away from implementing things like the Master Bike Plan and the Master Pedestrian Plan?”
Because motorists pay taxes for infrastructure, and bicyclists and pedestrians don’t.
@8 Like any good sound bite or bumper sticker slogan, this one’s a bit facile, so let’s delve into the cars versus bikes versus walking issue a little deeper. Not much deeper, just a little deeper.
Why do anti-car people assume everyone can get around on a bike or by walking?
I mean, really, do they expect the elderly to ride a bicycle? How about asthmatics, should they be expected to bike or walk to work? How about people with chronic heart or pulmonary conditions for whom pumping bike pedals uphill is a physical impossibility, or a dangerous overexertion?
Look, there are folks for whom self-propelled transportation isn’t a viable alternative. It’s one thing to discourage car commuting to downtown office jobs by healthy young and middle aged people who could ride a bus and walk a few blocks. I did it for years. But the idea of penalizing all car use by everyone, regardless of age or medical condition or physical ability, is just plain nonsense.
Transportation discussions should focus on getting people out of cars who can be got out of cars. That’s not everyone. Look, I’m at the age where I can’t ride a bike anymore, can’t hop very far, and can’t go out in the rain without risking pneumonia. When people start saying silly things like I should walk two miles to a light rail station, or I should stand in a cold rain at a bus stop in November, I-just-don’t-listen-because-what-they’re-saying-is-so-insensitive-to-my-needs-that-these-people-not-only-don’t-have-any-solutions-to-offer-me-but-will-make-my-life-miserable-if-they-get-their-way.
Look, let’s get the people out of cars who can be got out of cars, and let’s get the cars off the road that can be got off the road, but let’s stop demonizing cars people need to drive and the people who need to drive them because bikes, walking, buses, or what-have-you don’t work for them.
@1 I don’t know if Carr is a hack, but his predecessor, Mark Sidran, was — and still is — a hack. So maybe you could argue there’s something about the city attorney job — it’s low profile, or whatever — that attracts hacks.
Back in his city attorney days, Sidran harassed nightclubs, too. Now he decorates a chair at the state utilities and transportation commission (as Chair, no less); and provided the deciding vote that:
a) Gave Puget Sound Energy a 9% rate increase, at the expense of consumers, when natural gas prices are falling and market interest rates are nearly zero; and
b) Let MacQuarrie, an Australian hedge fund, buy Puget Sound Energy.
Does this sound like someone who has the best interests of Washingtonians in mind, or someone who has the best interests of corporate campaign donors in mind?
PSE was already getting an ROI (return on investment) north of 10%. Their argument was they need more to attract capital. (They didn’t seem to have any trouble attracting MacQuarrie’s capital under the current profit structure.) Sidran apparently agreed, because he voted to give them the rate increase they requested.
If a 10%-plus ROI wasn’t enough to attract the capital PSE wants for expansion, it’s nevertheless enough to give PSE’s CEO a $20 million bonus for selling the company to a foreign company that specializes in buying up public infrastructure and makes its money by raising road tolls, utility rates, and flipping companies. Sidran voted for that, too.
But no problem, the U & T Commission isn’t elected, it’s appointed (by the guv), so the outraged public can’t get back at this guy.
Why Gregoire appointed this hack is a fucking mystery.
Lee, bad cops aren’t making this country a violent, dangerous place to live, it’s criminals. So why do you focus on the cops? Why don’t you ever speak out against criminals?
Oh, and I’m one step ahead of you. Save me your bad cops ARE criminals line. You know what I mean. Now answer me, boy!
the fucking baffoon joe biden says they misread the economy. what a fucking joke he is. another jew creation. and you make fun of sarah palin. you jew bastards. all the money in the world will not change the fact that you kikes are genetic creatins and you’re jealous of sarah palin becuase shes not deformed from generations of inbreeding….as proof i give you …ta da..henry, son of frankenstien, waxman.
@11 Because bad cops put innocent people in jail or worse, jackass. Cops have too much legal immunity. If you want better behaved cops, you need less restraint on trial lawyers.
@12 Go kiss Himmler’s ass. You’re a fucking joke. A wingnut joke, that is. Why are wingnut jokes so bad? I guess bad wingnut jokes reflect the pathetic moral and intellectual deficits of the loony right. Yeah, that must be it.
Pelletizer still on that stupid tax kick huh? Everyone with a brain knows Seattle screwed the pooch on the snow plowing fiasco. Even da mayor 2 Nickels said so. Butt in your silly femtometer mind it’s still about the taxes.
@14
sorry rog, you’re the fucking joke. you’re either a jew, or being duped by the jews, either way, you’re a sorry ass motherfucker. by the way, while i’m kissing himler’s ass, why dont you kiss david lettermans ass. lets keep making jokes about people who the media lies about because they a good christians. you people have no clue how much you’re hated. keep those plates spinning, myron.
man-o-tooth The Jews, there are Jews in my closet, there are Jews under the bed! THey are everywhere! They control everything!
And until a majority of posters kiss Pud’s butt, he has no comment on the raving lunacy.
K, where has Puddy asked anyone to kiss Puddy’s butt?
NO WHERE fool! Puddy asked HA libtardos to condemn one of yours with a much longer history on HA than MOT. Since you are still in the minus column it proves to Puddy what type of HA Libtardo you really are fool!
On second thought, since K is thinking of Puddy’s butt why don’t you kiss it K? You can do it next Tuesday at Drunken Libtardos. You game?
In the past I did call out one on the left side, and you took it and ran with it. “Even k” began your spew. Since then, I give you nothing.
But I have never seen anti-semitism approaching the bile from mot. If you are comfortable with that, sleep well.
K Puddy sleeps very well. You know the score but you can’t play. Wow K called out a Dummocrapt once. Puddy called out Cynical recently. Did you miss that too?
Puddy still remembers your stupid answer when Puddy asked you if you were looking for a terrorist attack before GWBush left the white house.
P R I C E L E S S !
Good for you Pud. None of what you post is at all memorable.
Ouch K that weally weally hurt! Puddy got them riled on ASOTUS Ginsburg fool!!!
Yes (yawn) I’m riled (yawn).
You go for it, young fella.
Yes, truth does make a libtardo sleepy. Brain farts!
You go with that Pud. You are more tedious than normal tonight, and worth no more of my time. You enjoy yourself with your “truth”. I have better things to do.
Here is K in action
@11
Lee, bad cops aren’t making this country a violent, dangerous place to live, it’s criminals.
It’s both.
Nahhh ..
MOT tells us it is the Joos.
This may be the dumbest thread yet on HA.
@10 “Let MacQuarrie, an Australian hedge fund, buy Puget Sound Energy.”
Remember all the hype we were force-fed about how the new ownership’s deep pockets would provide oh, so much more investment in upgrading PSE’s facilities?
Well…does anyone know of a single major capital project PSE has undertaken since, other than replacing the Wilburton substation after it blew up in the 2006 windstorm?
More compassionate progressivism in action
What a load of useless comments. Can ya’ll go play somewhere else? Grrr.
@11
Using the phrase “Answer me boy” is just begging to be ignored, but…
Bad Cops makes the public less likely to trust the police force and therfore less likely to report minor crime. So minor criminals are more likely to go unpunished and graduate to more serious crime.
Bad cops does indeed make society more prone to crime, violence and becoming a dangerous place to live.
I fully realize that Troll is incapable of complex thought.
what a stupid thread.
almost nothing of value on the candidates, someone’s attacking someone’s who’s not even running this year, and lots of name calling.
this is free speech in action, I guess it’s better than government mandated speech but wow it’s pretty poor discourse.
Btw on that roads v. car thing?
The “anti-car” people aren’t saying let’s rip out all the roads, mr. rabbit, they’re saying we already got tons of roads let’s have some more transit.
Marginal mobility rate of return is higher to some, enviro benefits are greater to some, there’s lots of reasons. Anyway, the prob is when they drive (most of them do, you know) they pay gas tax dollars but then those dolalrs aren’t even allowed to go to transit.
The people who pay those dolalrs have no voting rights to vote for legislators to put those gas tax dollars into transit.
So hooting that the money for the tunnel all comes from the gas tax doesn’t prove anything and it certainly doesn’t prove that “the peopole” by that means are showing approval fo the bored tunnel.
Normally you are pretty sensible mr. rabbit so I am sure you will the point.
@7 Leporidae Lagomorpha
Watch the snotty comments. Not all of us fairies like snow.Along with your comments about dogs, you’re sounding like the gasbagpiper
You called out “one” but won’t call out any others because Puddy pointed it out? How sad for you that you consider calling someone on the left out for their bigotry giving something to Puddy.
Since you never sp[oke up against the homop[hobic bigotry of steve and gbs, is that an admission you are “comfortable” with it?
Steve spewed:
Here’s a clue, you goatfucking faggot cunt. Our calling you a faggot cunt is not to belittle gays and women. It is to belittle you, you worthless goatfucking faggot cunt piece of shit.
05/05/2009 AT 8:46 PM
http://horsesass.org/?p=15786&.....ent-916253
Your call K, are you offended or comfortable with your fellow lefties spewing their bigotry?
concerns about Holmes? the link points to a debate last June about one issue the jail and nothing more so what you’re talking about isn’t clear. And the ivan crap is just his own form of supporting his local boy “Maximum Tom Carr.”
The one endorsed by Mark Sidran and SPOG, what more do you need to know?
If we are going to have “concerns” about campaigns, let’s start with Nickels packing the 34th meeting with 20 city employees just in time so he got at least one endorsement from a democratic group. Probably this helped his buddy Carr, too. I’m sure it was all totally legal. Just like how SEEC found the mayor’s street got snow-plowed, but there was no evidence, none at all, this was at the mayor’s request? Apparently he just noticed his own street was plowed and said to himself, “Wow, what a stroke of luck! He I am catching major heat about lack of plowing in W. Seattle and by coincidence, SDOT plows my own street!!
“Well I must be sure to never, ever, show any favoritism to the SDOT manager who did that.”
Similarly, when walking into the 34th democrats meeting the mayor and city attorney must have said to themselves “Oh my oh my looky here! There’s twenty faces we know from our jobs– those are the same people we supervise!! How did they get here?”
“I wonder who who in the world could have gotten on the phone and organzied them to magically show up on the very last day allowed so they could vote their true First Amendment conscious on who’s better in this race, their current supervisers or people not in office?”
“Wow, it warms the cockles of my heart to see this fine upstanding expression of political speech, so unlike the Chicago background I was born in!”
Seriously a few questions about who organized that and whether they used their city issued cell phones are in order, don’t you think?
Since its open thread, let me ask a question- when do all the trolls begin their apologies for all the attacks on Nancy Pelosi, now that we know that Cheney and Addington ordered the CIA to lie to Congress? Just wondering…
Local Voter
Pelletizer (Roger Dumb Bunny Rabbit) the self proclaimed lawyer of HA Libtardos claimed the Nickels Seattle snow plow fiasco was all due to taxes. Axk him and he’ll tell you all about it.
@8, 9
Not all infrastructure spending comes from gas taxes. Pedestrians and cyclists pay the same sales taxes, income tax and property taxes as everyone else.
you can already drive safely anywhere you need to go. The same isn’t true for walking and cycling.
Amen to that. The demonization of cars seems to come from a small subset of the Seattle cycling community. We don’t see it down here in the south sound.
@39 “Roger … claimed the Nickels Seattle snow plow fiasco was all due to taxes.”
Bullshit. Where did I say that, LIAR? Link, please.
Really, don’t bother with the link, because there isn’t one. What I actually said was anti-government types who don’t want to pay any taxes shouldn’t expect any government services. Not the same, jerkoff.
7. Roger Rabbit spews:
@6 Why should the streets get plowed? Why on earth do you anti-government types expect the streets to get plowed? Who do you think plows the streets, anyway? Little snow fairies?
No need to thank me.
@40 “Not all infrastructure spending comes from gas taxes. Pedestrians and cyclists pay the same sales taxes, income tax and property taxes as everyone else.”
I hate to argue with you Michael, but … there’s no income tax here, and transportation funding doesn’t come from sales or property tax revenues. Virtually all of it comes from dedicated transportation taxes, primarily the gas tax and vehicle excise fees.
“you can already drive safely anywhere you need to go. The same isn’t true for walking and cycling.”
Riding in a car is arguably one of life’s most dangerous activities. The biggest threat to cyclists is aggressive drivers, and the biggest threats to pedestrians are aggressive drivers and cyclists. Back when I was working downtown, I was knocked down in crosswalks twice in 3 days by aggressive cyclists who plowed through crowds of pedestrians in crosswalks at full speed. Far from being apologetic, these inconsiderate bastards swore at me and then took off without waiting to find out if I was injured.
In some cases, walking and cycling can be made safer with (very expensive) infrastructure improvements such as pedestrian overpasses, but no amount of spending can make it safer from the main cause of the problem, i.e. bad attitudes on the part of some drivers and cyclists. What we need is more cops, more citations, and above all, a legal requirement that bicyclists have license plates on their vehicles and carry liability insurance just like drivers are required to do.
The last accident I was involved in was a high-speed parking lot collison. My vehicle was totaled and I had about $10,000 of medical bills. The at-fault driver had no license, no insurance, and was driving a car that didn’t belong to her. The owner of the car had no insurance, either. I had to sue my own insurance company to collect under my uninsured motorist coverage. Even though we have a law in this state that requires all vehicle owners and operators to have liability insurance, neither one of those yahoos will ever pay a penny or spend a day in jail.
The lack of enforcement of laws we already have in this state is absurd. So is the Department of Licensing’s practice of letting drivers accumulate literally dozens of moving violations before losing their licenses. And when people drive with suspended, revoked, or no license, they get a slap on the wrist — if that much — from our courts.
We have traffic anarchy in this state because of lack of effective law enforcement, not because of lack of infrastructure. If you want to make cyclists and pedestrians safer, then stop letting aggressive drivers and cyclists get away unpunished with what amounts to aggravated assault.
I don’t have it in for cyclists, per se. I have no problem with people who ride bikes responsibly. But I do have it in for the assholes who use their bikes as a weapon and intentionally intimidate pedestrians. I happen to feel the best way to deal with them is fines, jail time, and lawsuits. But given the laissez-faire law enforcement in our state, and the absence of any meaningful requirement that aggressive cyclists stop at the scene of a bike-pedestrian collision, identify themselves, and give aid to the people they’ve injured, I feel the next best thing is a 2×4 — first you stick it in their spokes, then you lay it across these motherfuckers’ thick skulls. But unfortunately, that’s against the law too, and unlike the actions of the aggressive cyclists probably will provoke a law enforcement response, so let’s just ban the fucking bicycles from sidewalks as self-defense.
@40 Of course, we’ll never get our trolls to stop demonizing government out of one corner of their mouths, and whining about the absence or ineffectiveness of public services out of the other. To them, simultaneously bashing government and taking from it, are a sport.
Telling It Like It Is
Jon (memo to Troll: not “John”) Talton has a damn good column in today’s fishwrapper about Boeing and those who blame union workers for Boeing’s extortion games. Some excerpts:
“If Boeing’s Puget Sound employees decertified their unions and agreed to a 20 percent pay cut tomorrow, the company would still shop around the location of its second Dreamliner assembly.”
“Some are so sick of kowtowing to Boeing threats they’re ready to call the company’s bluff.”
“Blaming workers or programs that benefit them obscures the real competitive issues that face us.”
“It stretches credulity to argue that four strikes over 20 years are anywhere near the competitive burden of the executive blunders that put the Dreamliner behind schedule.”
“It’s especially disingenuous to hide behind the [bad business climate] myth when Boeing has benefited from billions in tax breaks and other incentives here.”
Talton also points out that Boeing may not have much of a hand to play in South Carolina:
“It’s an open question whether South Carolina still has game. The state:
• Is in political chaos with a governor mired in scandal.
• Is suffering some of the highest unemployment in the nation, 12.1 percent in May.
• Finances are so troubled it may have trouble marshaling the incentives it has successfully used in the past.
• The Vought assembly plant purchased by Boeing was among the most troubled parts of the 787s outsourced-supply chain.”
And Talton doesn’t hesitate to identify the real causes of Washington’s competitive disadvantages. Among them:
“Business taxes are relatively high, partly a consequence of having no income tax and tax-limitation measures. They fall heaviest on smaller, unsexy industries without Boeing’s lobbying power.”
You can read the complete article here: http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....col12.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I say call Boeing’s hand. And if they actually move 787 assembly to South Carolina, let’s help ’em pack! Oh, and one more thing — if you own any Boeing stock, you’d better sell it before they go the way of General Motors and Lehman Brothers, because no amount of union-bashing can offset the consequences of plain ol’ BAD MANAGEMENT.
Communique From Wonderland
Bailin’ Palin says (a) she’s not leaving politics, (b) she’ll campaign for Democrats who share her views, and (c) her husband is “nonpartisan.”
[raucous rabbit laughter in background]
@43, 44
We get federal funding for infrastructure, county funding for infrastructure at the county level, when the city of Gig Harbor builds a road or stripes a bike lane most of the money to do that comes from local sales tax.
Gig Harbor scored about 100K in federal funds through the Safe Routes To School program to help with bike and ped issues near two schools.
Washington state scored $3,576,977 in federal funding for 2009 from Safe Routes to School. Not all of that is for infrastructure improvements, but that’s the biggest chunk.
I agree you on #44. There are some things that need to be done to improve safety for cyclists, mostly to do getting them through intersections safely.
@43, 44
We get federal funding for infrastructure, county funding for infrastructure at the county level, when the city of Gig Harbor builds a road or stripes a bike lane most of the money to do that comes from local sales tax.
Gig Harbor scored about 100K in federal funds through the Safe Routes To School program to help with bike and ped issues near two schools.
Washington state scored $3,576,977 in federal funding for 2009 from Safe Routes to School. Not all of that is for infrastructure improvements, but that’s the biggest chunk.
I agree you on #44. There are some things that need to be done to improve safety for cyclists, mostly to do getting them through intersections safely.
There’s a rather intesting bit I buddy sent me by a guy named Matt Taibbi from Rolling Stone. The title of the piece is THE GREAT AMERICAN BUBBLE MACHINE, and it’s about the evil Goldman Sachs has inflicted upon this countyr since the Great Depression:
“BUBBLE #6 – GLOBAL WARMING
Fast-Forward to today. It’s early June in Washington, D.C. Barack Obama, a popular young politician whose leading private campaign donor was an investment bank called Goldman Sachs – its employees paid some $981,000 to his campaign – sits in the White House. Having seamlessly navigated the political minefield of the bailout era, Goldman is once again back to its old business, scouting out loopholes in a new government-created market with the aid of a new set of alumni occupying key government jobs.
AS ENVISIONED BY GOLDMAN, THE FIGHT TO STOP GLOBAL WARMING WILL BECOME A “CARBON MARKET” WORTH $1 TRILLION A YEAR.
Gone are Hank Paulson and Neel Kashkari; in their place are Treasury chief of staff Mark Patterson and CFTC chief Gary Gensler, both former Goldmanites. (Gensler was the firm’s co-head of finance) And instead of credit derivatives or oil futures or mortgage-backed CDOs, the new game in town, the next bubble, is in carbon credits – a booming trillion-dollar market that barely even exists yet, but will if the Democratic Party that it gave $4,452,585 to in the last election manages to push into existence a groundbreaking new commodities bubble, disguised as an “environmental plan,” called cap-and-trade.
The new carbon-credit market is a virtual repeat of the commodities-market casino that’s been kind to Goldman, except it has one delicious new wrinkle: If the plan goes forward as expected, the rise in prices will be government-mandated. Goldman won’t even have to rig the game. It will be rigged in advance.
Here’s how it works: If the bill passes; there will be limits for coal plants, utilities, natural-gas distributors and numerous other industries on the amount of carbon emissions (a.k.a. greenhouse gases) they can produce per year. If the companies go over their allotment, they will be able to buy “allocations” or credits from other companies that have managed to produce fewer emissions. President Obama conservatively estimates that about $646 billions worth of carbon credits will be auctioned in the first seven years; one of his top economic aides speculates that the real number might be twice or even three times that amount.
The feature of this plan that has special appeal to speculators is that the “cap” on carbon will be continually lowered by the government, which means that carbon credits will become more and more scarce with each passing year. Which means that this is a brand-new commodities market where the main commodity to be traded is guaranteed to rise in price over time. The volume of this new market will be upwards of a trillion dollars annually; for comparison’s sake, the annual combined revenues of an electricity suppliers in the U.S. total $320 billion.
Goldman wants this bill. The plan is (1) to get in on the ground floor of paradigm-shifting legislation, (2) make sure that they’re the profit-making slice of that paradigm and (3) make sure the slice is a big slice. Goldman started pushing hard for cap-and-trade long ago, but things really ramped up last year when the firm spent $3.5 million to lobby climate issues. (One of their lobbyists at the time was none other than Patterson, now Treasury chief of staff.) Back in 2005, when Hank Paulson was chief of Goldman, he personally helped author the bank’s environmental policy, a document that contains some surprising elements for a firm that in all other areas has been consistently opposed to any sort of government regulation. Paulson’s report argued that “voluntary action alone cannot solve the climate-change problem.” A few years later, the bank’s carbon chief, Ken Newcombe, insisted that cap-and-trade alone won’t be enough to fix the climate problem and called for further public investments in research and development. Which is convenient, considering that ‘Goldman made early investments in wind power (it bought a subsidiary called Horizon Wind Energy), renewable diesel (it is an investor in a firm called Changing World Technologies) and solar power (it partnered with BP Solar), exactly the kind of deals that will prosper if the government forces energy producers to use cleaner energy. As Paulson said at the time, “We’re not making those investments to lose money.”
The bank owns a 10 percent stake in the Chicago Climate Exchange, where the carbon credits will be traded. Moreover, Goldman owns a minority stake in Blue Source LLC, a Utah-based firm that sells carbon credits of the type that will be in great demand if the bill passes. Nobel Prize winner Al Gore, who is intimately involved with the planning of cap-and-trade, started up a company called Generation Investment Management with three former bigwigs from Goldman Sachs Asset Management, David Blood, Mark Ferguson and Peter Harris. Their business? Investing in carbon offsets. There’s also a $500 million Green Growth Fund set up by a Goldmanite to invest in green-tech … the list goes on and on. Goldman is ahead of the headlines again, just waiting for someone to make it rain in the right spot. Will this market be bigger than the energy-futures market?
“Oh, it’ll dwarf it,” says a former staffer on the House energy committee.
Well, you might say, who cares? If cap-and-trade succeeds, won’t we all be saved from the catastrophe of global warming? Maybe – but cap-and-trade, as envisioned by Goldman, is really just a carbon tax structured so that private interests collect the revenues. Instead of simply imposing a fixed government levy on carbon pollution and forcing unclean energy producers to pay for the mess they make, cap-and trade will allow a small tribe of greedy-as-hell Wall Street swine to turn yet another commodities market into a private tax-collection scheme. This is worse than the bailout: It allows the bank to seize taxpayer money before it’s even collected.”
That’s an extract, and the rest of the article details how evil a company like Goldman Sachs can go.
Marvin@42: Thanks. Took the wife and a friend to an art show so just got back.
Pelletizer is you standard libtardo. They say crapola, forget they said it and when caught want us to post the link to their drivel. If they only had a brain!
Notice Pelletizer hasn’t responded to being hammered by Marvin!
Good to see PI@50 catching up to Puddy!
Great article huh? Puddy read it on Democratic Underground and posted it on HA Libtardos last week. A great source to use against HA Libtardos! Goldman Sachs screwed us before, supported Dummocraptic candidates and now about to screw us again.
So Pelletizer@41, do you need to see the link too?
That’s okay we know who the R E A L liar is around here…
Y O U!
Obama the Idiot continues to tank!
Folks finally realize the idiot doesn’t know what he is doing and is leading us down a destructive path economically and defense-wise.
Read & weep KLOWNS!
Sunday, July 12, 2009
From +32 to -7 in 5-1/2 months!
The numbers tell it all.
@ 54:
Yaaaaawwwwwnnnn . . . Yeah, and Gov. Quitter will become the next president of the United States. She’ll get Republicans back the House and the Senate with filibuster and veto proof majorities.
You will never, ever in your life time see Republicans pulling all the levers of government again.
You will die, rot and turn in to worm shit before that happens again.
What a freakin’ chump.
@ 54:
What you will more likely see in your life time is the Grand Old Party becoming a footnote in history books like the Whigs.
You better hope and pray that the economy gets worse in 2010 and the terrorists strike us before 2012 and bin Laden isn’t killed or captured.
Because if you don’t win seats in the House in 2010 and lose more seats in the Senate in 2010 that sets the stage for your final demise.
If, in 2012 you don’t win back the House, and you lose even one more seat in the Senate coupled with a losing the White House, I guarantee in 2013 there will be a strong “third party” that cripples, if not destoys what’s left of the party of “no.”
You know:
No ideas
No leadership
No morals
No success
Remember, Americans don’t like hypocritical losers — like you.
Marv @ 36- perhaps because I grew up with folks who lost relatives and had other tattooed in the camps I have a visceral reaction to anti-semitism. Do I agree with or approve of the sexual referances, absolutely not.
But the dishonest arguementative taking of words out of context by many, Mr. Pud in particular, does make me choose my words carefully. I simply am not interested in being dragged into some of these silly exchanges.
QUite frankly the twisting of RR’s words about taxes are a clear example of how meaningless you and yours can be. As we currently are organized, snow removal is a government function, albeit one done poorly in many western washington communities. If there are no taxes, there is no snow removal. To link that to what was clearly an inadequate or poorly followed procedure in west seattle is intellectually dishonest.
K what a moron you are as always. Do you drink a Kooky K Konkoction when you get up.
There was no twist to Pelletizer’s words. Here Puddy will give you a reeducation…
13. Puddybud is shocked SHOCKED spews: Hey, any “thunderbolts” at Greg I Got My Two” Nickels are well deserved. Closing parks, beach burn bans, faulty snow removal… Yep it’s deserved.
16. Roger Rabbit spews: @13 “Closing parks, … faulty snow removal” is what you get when nobody pays taxes, you stupid fuck.
Now why did Greg 2 Nickels close the parks? It wasn’t for taxes back then. You see K Puddy went back to see what Mayor 2 Nickels said as he was mayor-elect and Puddy placed it here for all to read. Then Puddy placed Mayor 2 Nickels comments when he was re-erected in 2005. Now if K decides not to read, then K can’t comment on that which he skips. It’s folly for K to comment and then look stupid because K decided to skip the comments. Looks like K likes looking stupid much of the time and then runs and says strange things about Puddy. Well Puddy calls http://smg.photobucket.com/alb.....nt=bs2.gif
Now why did Greg 2 Nickels call for a beach burn ban? It wasn’t for taxes back then. It was over the carbon and CO2 being released by burning. Well why hasn’t Mayor 2 Nickels invested in carbon credits. All he needed to do was call his good bud Al Gorebasm for the inside scoop on carbon credit purchases.
Now why did the snow not get removed. It wasn’t for taxes back then. Even Greg 2 Nickels admitted it earlier this year. Seems to Puddy K being a guvmint savant would read the comments of the Seattle Mayor. Butt you are a guvmint fool who can’t freaking remember what Mayor 2 Nickels said.
Tell Puddy why you work for guvmint again when you can’t remember what they say?
Here you go K, get it from the same paper that Goldy loves to use.
“Together, Paul Jackson Jr. and Robert Clarke, a former crew chief, orchestrated a disjointed response to the winter weather that left major streets unplowed while Jackson, the man calling the shots, worried aloud about clearing certain streets so the mayor could drive to work, according to interviews with plow drivers and street crews and thousands of department records analyzed by The Seattle Times.
“Mr. Jackson had no idea of what was going on,” said Sione Kongaika, a plow driver who recently retired after 31 years with the Seattle Department of Transportation. Two or three days into the first major snowfall, “all he was doing is yelling, ‘We have to get more plows downtown. The mayor can’t get to the office.’ ”
West Seattle, home to the mayor and transportation chief Grace Crunican, received an inordinate amount of attention right before Christmas, records show. Ten employees spent a total of 76 hours over two days clearing sidewalks, landings and bus stops in West Seattle, with the largest crew dispatched to the Admiral district where Mayor Greg Nickels and Deputy Mayor Tim Ceis live.”
K still stupid and proving it more each day!
Wow you guys have a really boring thread here, all the same arguments over and over with juvenile name calling. It’s like whatever is osted is totally irrelevant. Weird!
As to the snow removal issue and the mayor, be fiar!
The seattle ethics board did a thourough investigation and found out there was no ethics violation and getting the snow removed from the mayor’s street wasn’t proven to be at the request of the mayor.
He just RECEIVED THE BENEFIT.
See the distinction?
I hope mr. rabbit and mr. puddy can agree on one thing: this looks bad, is bad, and isn’t any way to run a government.
Yes we need taxes to pay for snow removal, puddydude, and yes sometimes government fucks up, rabbit dude, now both of you just sit there and agree in unison.
Thank you.
If “politically correct” and “puddy bud” pulled their collective heads out of their collective anatomy and actually read the six chapters and different bubbles of the Goldman Sachs article and really understood the whole context of it rather than cherry picking about 10% of it with no context, they would try their best to deny its actual implications and ignore that it exists. The reason is because it refutes everything they have said the last two years I have occasionally read their babbling.
See, for anyone who actually read the whole article,and perhaps also have heard Matt Taibai speak about this issue, and perhaps had any context for his past writings they might understand. See, read wherein he has talked about Goldman riding the crony capitalism of the Reagan-Bush era to fuck all Americans, and also to show have they have soaked the American taxpayer by taking the deregulation of the Reagan Bush eras an converted the American government to their own personal slush funds wherein they created produscts to vacuum money out of all our investment funds, set up insurance products to bet against their failures, took huge fees on both ends, paid themselves off, and left us footing the bill.
Yes, Robert Rubin played a part, but it was just riding the era of Republican deregulation and crony capitalism.
To say that Obama who has been sucked into riding along on this early portion of the carbon credits and is to blame him for this yet to actually happen stage of being screwed by crony capitalism. Taibai actually points out that just the recent Bush crony capitalism cost us about $14 TRILLION dollars so far, that they helped enable the gas price bubble of last summer and made many more hundreds of billions, rode the S&L saga of the 80’s. This pathetic attempt to blam Obama is a lot worse than even trolls who blame the state of LA for the failures of FEMA after Katrina.
Either Puddy and politically idiotic are liars, or they can’t read and comprehend real articles, or they didn’t bother to actually read the article beyond the talking points memos from their right wing sycophants from the party of Lush Rimbaugh, Sarah the quitter, Sanford the strange, etc, etc.
Trying to blame Democrats and Obama for crony capitalism is something only trolls could believe.
Wow Tom Butt Floss, The Dummocrapts at Democratic Underground seem to DISAGREE with your anal-lysis!
Apparently Tom Butt Floss can’t read what Puddy said last week. Puddy read the article and the commentary on DUmmys fool! Puddy posted the link so all could read it. And… which party did Goldman Sachs support over the years and big time last year?
Keep up the mantra. You are a “strange” progressive.
Local voter@60: Search HA Libtardos
Where did Puddy claim you don’t need taxes to move snow?
Where did Puddy claim any ethics violation?
Why are you confused by facts?
Where did Puddy say the mayor benefited?
The snow removal problem was NOT due to taxes collected or not collected whatsoever. It was due to department incompetence. And who runs Seattle? Mayor 2 Nickels. If you want to complain Abu Ghraib was a GWB buck stops here event, then the lack of street snow removal is a Mayor 2 Nickels buck stops here event.
It was Pelletizer who injected taxes into the equation. Why did you miss that LV?
Wow Tom Butt Floss, companies put their support where they deliver the money…
Goldman Sachs “The firm tends to give most of its money to Democrats.”
While all the HA libtardos complained about Glass-Stegall Puddy finds some comments Matt Taibbi didn’t add. Butt Tom Butt Floss can’t add other comments from other sources together.
“Today Congress voted to update the rules that have governed financial services since the Great Depression and replace them with a system for the 21st century. This historic legislation will better enable American companies to compete in the new economy.” – Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers of Clinton Administration.
“I welcome this day as a day of success and triumph.” – Senator Christopher Dodd, Dummocrapt-Conn.
“The concerns that we will have a meltdown like 1929 are dramatically overblown.” – Senator Bob Kerrey, Dummocrapt-Neb.
“If we don’t pass this bill, we could find London or Frankfurt or years down the road Shanghai becoming the financial capital of the world. There are many reasons for this bill, but first and foremost is to ensure that U.S. financial firms remain competitive.” – Senator Chuck Schumer, Dummocrapt-N.Y.
Hey Tom Butt Bloss Puddy suggest you read The Roaring Nineties: A New History of the World’s Most Prosperous Decade by Joseph E. Stiglitz ISBN-13: 978-0393058529. In the book Stiglitz admits the Clinton Administration’s Treasury Department which was headed by Robert Rubin and later with “the messiah’s” retread Lawrence Summers was always promoting the interest of big finance and their interests.
@20 “Puddy called out Cynical”
Bullshit.
Marvin fucks goats.
@43
Mr. Rabbit you are quite wrong, most auto transport infrastructure is NOT paid for by the gas tax or vehicle excise taxes. Local roads are paid for by cities and counties which in this state means funding comes out of city and county general funds. Even at the state and federal level the road budgets are supplemented with general fund revenue, remember the whole thing with the highway trust fund being broke?
Back to the specific issue at hand. The argument against the tunnel is that it is a very expensive project serving a very few drivers. There are much better places to spend limited transportation dollars both in Seattle and statewide. The backlog of state-level maintenance projects is huge. Furthermore due to the way the tunnel deal is structured it puts at risk city budgets for pedestrian and cycle infrastructure.
I understand there are concerns if the capacity on 99 though downtown isn’t replaced vehicle for vehicle it will impact freight moblity. I would advocate rather than building an expensive new highway tunnel lets spend some of the money focusing on freight mobility instead. This would help all port users and all businesses who’s goods have to enter, leave, or cross downtown not just the few who currently use 99.
Bigger picture, what many of us advocate isn’t an anti-car view so much as not reflexively spending huge amounts of money chasing the myth of “congestion relief” for single-occupancy-vehicle drivers. Target the spending at maintenance, replacing worn out infrastructure, and fixing things like poorly configured intersections. New road infrastructure should be focused on things like HOV lanes and freight mobility. Take a small percentage of current road funding and put it toward pedestrian, bicycle, and transit improvements. Also a portion of current transportation funding at all levels should go toward supporting both freight and passenger rail.
@44
BTW I agree there needs to be much stronger enforcement of traffic laws. I’d say drivers are the largest portion of the problem, but some cyclists do need the sort of attitude adjustment only getting big tickets or getting run over can provide.
As for liability insurance the best way to ensure everyone has liability insurance is to require proof of current insurance at registration. Also require proof of insurance for all of the preceding 12 months. Anyone who can’t gets slapped with a huge fine (say $200 per month the vehicle wasn’t insured). Similarly require proof of insurance in order to renew your license.
Anyone caught driving without insurance should loose their license for a 12 month period, no exceptions.
I’m sure there are some other ideas to be had from states that do a much better job of enforcing both their mandatory insurance laws and their DUI laws.
Steve, Steve, Steve, you are putting yourself in a corner again. You wanna be proven a liar again? Look up the Goldy post where Cynical attacked Goldy’s daughter fool. Puddy chastised Cynical, you moron!
How does it feel to be a liar again?
@70 “Puddy chastised Cynical”
When was that? 2004? Mr. Klynical spews a racist joke last week and you said nothing, as usual, pulling that pathetic “Mr. 50% + 1” crap from your ass again.
How does it feel to be my bitch?
Steve of Steve’s Stupid Solution.
Puddy ain’t your bitch. You and Ekim have your goats in da barn for yo bitches. You betcha on the 50% + 1. Puddy uses that as a BULLSHITTIUM shield against you and other libtardo loons.
What? You can’t go back and look at the Goldy before July 4th 2009 threads and see how where Cynical was chastised and determine you are a liar and you tell lie after lie after lie. Too bad Steve has 24 hr libtardo disease like Pelletizer above. Why is it libtardos like Steve can’t remember yesterday?
Well if Puddy was Steve (there’s a scary thought), Puddy supposes Steve wouldn’t wanna go back and have to publicly apologize to all of HA for being a liar again!
Puddy–
Did I really “attack” Goldy’s daughter????
I thought I tried to personalize things for Goldy using his situation so he could relate to it.
If it came out wrong, I apologize.
I tried to find the post and couldn’t.
Can you help me out…….
Hey Kommodore and Kountry klubber Steve-O..
Obama is tanking.
No wonder you try to refocus the discussion on something else besides this:
Monday, July 13, 2009
From +32 to -8 in 5-1/2 months.
No wonder steve wants to change the focus to minuscia! Obama is an idiot. Folks are finally see the Marxist KLOWN for what he is
@61,
Tom, I read the whole article about the 6 bubbles. As I said, I only provided an extract of the 6th bubble because it was related to global warming, which was kinda the topic of the thread. The rest of the Goldman bubbles were quite interesting, particularly the housing bubble. Goldman Sachs is truly the best example of crony capitalism and shows that, no matter which political party is in power, Goldman will manipulate markets in unfair ways to provide excessive pay, bonuses and perks to senior execs.
Goldman Sachs has become a threat to democracy and should be broken-up into many smaller companies, each competing against themselves and the rest of the investment banking market.
To say that Obama isn’t sliding into the same trap as previous administrations is fairly stupid: he and his people are in it up to their necks. The only way to stop the Goldman conspiracy is to fire ANYONE who has ever worked for Goldman Sachs and to bar the government from hiring ANYONE who ever worked for Goldman Sachs. The firm is too corrupt to have ever had honest executives working there, so hiring any of those people to work in the US government is like asking a bunch of smart foxes to work in the hen house. The foxes ain’t gonna look after the hens too well, ace!
Oh yeah, here’s a link you should check-out, Tom:
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/.....eyqdzYcizc
@72 Christ, you loon, even Mr. Klynical @73 can’t remember when you ever chastised him. I tell you what, you two stupid fucks figure it out for yourselves and then get back to me when you think you have a fucking clue.
Steve, at least Cynical has a f#^*ing clue. You never do.
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAhahahahahahahaha
PI@74, Wow someone making $400,000 a year must pizz off the HA Libtardo crew badly. rude jackASS and clueless wonder will think of sumtin pithy to say. And “the messiah” hired a lobbyist from Goldman Sachs breaking his no lobbyists in my administration pledge for the 20+ time. Mark Patterson is Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s chief of staff.
Mr Myopic Tom Butt Floss also skips over all the Dummocraptic support Goldman Sachs has give to them over the years.
Puddy’s still without a clue, I see. The surprise would be if he actually had a clue.
@78,
If anyone in government ever worked for Goldman Sachs, then that person should be fired immediately. That firm is a danger to a functioning market and to capitalism. Get the Goldman people out of government before they ruin the country with greed and corruption!
@ivan
still dying to hear your exegesis on why Holmes is unqualified. Do put up or shut up, dear.