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And here we thought risky loans were not acceptable anymore. Guess the right wing initiative business is the last frontier for multi-level demagoguery.

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After you’re done getting your Elections Director Candidate Forum on, please help us celebrate the new year with an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We start at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Some folks will show up earlier for dinner.

If you’re not in the Seattle area, no worries. Swing by the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter within windsurfing distance of you.

The King County Democrats hold their Elections Director Candidate Forum tonight at Renton Carpenter’s Hall, moderated by… me.  Social hour starts at 6PM, and the forum starts promptly at 7PM.  Questions will be taken from the audience.

The on-again/off-again rumors of massive layoffs at Microsoft appear to be off again.  Well… sorta.

CNBC, citing Microsoft sources, said that cuts will be made through attrition and within the ranks of contract employees and not from full-time staff.

I’ve known a lot of folks who’ve worked at Microsoft over the years, and a helluva lot of them have worked as contract employees.  So while Microsoft may not be planning to “lay off” 17-percent of its workforce, as had been recently speculated, a large cut in contract employees could still have a significant impact on our regional economy.

Vancouver City Council member Tim Leavitt, who has announced he will challenge long-serving Mayor Royce Pollard for the city’s top spot, complains about Department of Ecology stormwater regulations:

Leavitt, an engineer by profession, doesn’t believe that is a reasonable rule to follow.

“Where do I find a map of pre-European development?” he asked during a Monday city council work session. “Did Lewis and Clark produce a map when they came out this way?”

Um, yes.

So one thing federal financial regulators and Congress need to examine is why banks can pay virtually nothing in interest rates on standard savings accounts while continuing to charge in the 5 percent range for 30 year mortgages and 6.5 percent and up or so on new auto loans, even as the federal funds rate is very nearly zero in real terms. It strikes me as a hidden corporate subsidy, in a way.

Financial advice gurus are always encouraging Americans to save more money, which is sound advice. It seems likely more folks will want a greater proportion of their money in FDIC insured accounts as opposed to the Ponzi stock market right now.

But people shouldn’t have to lock up several thousand dollars in a CD for two years just to get a meager 2% return. I mean, if a banks loans money at 5% and pays depositors 2%, the advantage is still with the bank, to be overly simplistic about it.

Sure, there are those who can buy CD’s and do so with tens of thousands of dollars, and good for them, but families who have smaller savings accounts are likely reticent to trade liquidity for a couple hundred dollars a year or less in interest. If we want a higher savings rate as a matter of national policy, people should be encouraged to save.

I think there used to be institutions in this country geared towards ordinary consumers known as “Savings and Loans,” but something happened to them about twenty years ago and they went away, curiously enough during the reign of Bush the Elder.

Not sure the best way to address this exactly, but banks should at least have to pay out more in interest than they charge in fees, over a certain minimum balance. Either that or we bring back savings and loans, and keep everyone named Bush away from them while regulating the hell out of them.

And yes, there are credit unions, which can be a good option as well.

The TNT’s Joe Turner reports that Gregoire Communications Director Pearse Edwards kinda-sorta lied to AP reporter Rachel La Corte about the governor’s whereabouts.  Edwards admitted to Turner:

“I did tell Rachel that the Governor was not in Iraq yesterday when we spoke. The security on this was critical and I was under strict instructions not to release that information by Dept. of Defense.”

Yeah, well, technically, the governor wasn’t in Iraq, she was en route, but considering the security concerns, wouldn’t La Corte have honored an embargo if Edwards had forthrightly answered her question on that condition?  I know I would’ve, for in the same way that Edwards might have damaged his credibility by deliberately misleading a reporter, I would have damaged my credibility by not honoring an embargo.  It’s a two-way street you know.

Or maybe I just don’t get something about this journalism thing?

Well, the big news apparently is that Gov. Gregoire will be making a “surprise” visit to WA national guard units in Iraq.  Which I suppose would have been big news if her staff had not allowed speculation of something bigger to get out of hand yesterday evening.

Big sigh of relief from local Dems fearing the turmoil of a Gregoire appointment.

Scanning the old RSS reader and the impressive amount of speculation by both dirty hippie leftist bloggers and traditional media types, I vote for the sensible speculation of Joe Turner at Political Buzz, who wonders if this is all about Viaduct money and then adds:

It could be broader than that. Democratic governors are set to meet again with Obama this week about the stimulus package. Gregoire has been active in pushing for a large boost to state’s with shovel-ready projects but there is no word as to whether she will be part of any meeting

It is awfully hard to imagine Gregoire departing so soon after an election victory that ratifies the rather solid job she does as governor, although I’d imagine she’d be a fine Commerce Secretary as well.

Turner’s theory seems a lot more plausible to me. The Obama team started rolling out more information about the stimulus proposal today, so it makes sense.

I guess we’ll find out tomorrow, which is a bajillion million thousand years in blog time.

The blogs are all a twitter with speculation that Gov. Chris Gregoire has flown to the other Washington, where she will be named tomorrow as President-Elect Barack Obama’s Secretary of Commerce, replacing his previous choice, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.

Well, what we do know is that she is indeed in D.C., that she’s booked satellite time at 6 7 AM tomorrow morning for a big announcement… but folks who seem to know these kinda things seem pretty sure that she is not being appointed to Commerce, and that tomorrow’s announcement may be big, but not that big.

Of course, if the announcement is that big, it certainly throws a wrench into our state government, and at a particularly bad time.  Lt. Gov. Brad Owen—nominally a Democrat—would take over until a special election is held in November of this year… an election that could be an absolute free for all on the Democratic side.  As for the Republicans, Dino Rossi would have to be the favorite out of the gate, but I wouldn’t put it beyond Rob McKenna to throw his hat into the ring.

As for me, I’m still exhausted from the previous gubernatorial election, which essentially lasted for the past four years, so I’m crossing my fingers that the folks who seem to know these kinda things know what they’re talking about, and Gregoire remains governor at least for the time being.

The Newport Hills chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight, 7-10PM, at the Mustard Seed Grill and Pub, 5608 119th Ave SE, in Bellevue, and I’m told that Washington State Democratic Party Chair Dwight Pelz will be stopping by.

Of course, the Seattle chapter will be meeting tomorrow night as usual, at the Montlake Ale House, although I’ll be arriving late after moderating the King County Democrats’ elections director candidate forum, 7PM at the Renton Carpenters Hall, 231 Burnett Ave. N.

Okay, so you’ve impressed your date with that fancy dinner for two you’ve won from the Seattle Times web site.  Um… now what?

I mean, if you tell your date that you got the dinner for free, it’s not all that impressive, is it?  But if you lie, and pretend you’re shelling out bucks on a fancy meal, than she might reasonably assume that you can afford to spend money like that, thus setting up the expectation of future pricy meals.  Or, she might guess that you can’t afford to spend money like that, and thus assume you’re pretty damn irresponsible.

Or let’s say it works, and a fancy dinner really does impress your date, and maybe you get lucky later.  If that’s the sort of shallow relationship you’re looking for, wouldn’t it be cheaper and more honest in the long run just to frequent hookers?

Personally, I’d rather impress my date with who I am, rather than what kind of restaurant I appear to be able to afford… though perhaps that explains why I’m divorced and single.

With the Minnesota Supreme Court rejecting a last minute appeal by Republican Norm Coleman, Al Franken is expected to be certified the winner in the North Star State’s US Senate race… great news for foul-mouthed satirists everywhere.

I mean, if Franken could pursue a political career after the things he’s said, I suppose that doesn’t entirely rule out a political career for somebody like me.  I’m just sayin’….

Seattle Department of Transportation officials spread salt on roads last night as snow started to accumulate throughout the city, even as meteorologists forecast warmer temperatures and rain overnight.  This morning, salted or not, Seattle roads are mostly clear, and slushy at worst.

Road salt in this kind of weather is a waste of money and salt; there’s not much chance of anything icing up when the temperature is above freezing.  But you know, this is what the Times and many other media outlets demanded, and this is what we got.

State Rep. Bill Grant (D-Walla Walla) died Sunday morning at the age of 71.  He was diagnosed with a rare form of lung cancer just last month.  My condolences to his friends and family.