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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.

Former Columbian editorial writer Elizabeth Hovde, now of The Oregonian, introduces herself to Portlanders.

I supported the Iraq invasion in 2003. Heck, I even voted for George W. Bush — twice.

At the same time, I am against torture.

(Slapping forehead.) Okay then. Hovde was so troubled by torture she went ahead and voted for Bush after the Abu Ghraib scandal had been known for six months or so. That’s quite a commitment to human rights.

Like many people in this great, green, soggy region of independents, I am not partisan.

Other than writing far-right columns at The Columbian for a decade, of course, where her work appeared for years along with the likes of Michelle Malkin. People might have somehow formed the impression the editorial page Hovde worked on was intent on being as right-wing as possible. I know I did. But that is entirely and magically separate from the dirty, dirty world of candidates and parties and ugly, dirty partisanship.

But Hovde is honest about her views, if not their ideological origins and the purposes for which they were used.

I am conservative, however. I’m pro-life. I am anti-bailouts. I think unions are outdated, overly political and that every state should have a right-to-work law ending compulsory unionism. I oppose Oregon’s Death With Dignity Act; I oppose even calling it the “Death With Dignity” Act. I am skeptical of some of Portland’s Smart Growth policies and believe they’ve helped create massive sprawl just across the river.

I worry that many public schools teach sex education in ways that undermine parents. It’s maddening to me that minors can’t get tattoos in Oregon but they can receive abortions without a parent’s knowledge, care or guidance. I grow weary of government safety nets that not only comfort those in true need but also become hammocks for those with an ability to be self-sufficient.

Nope, nothing partisan about any of that. I will agree that Portland can be annoying.

Hovde does sort her garbage, though.

I’ll pack out my Diet Coke cans rather than leave them at my in-laws’ house where they don’t recycle.

So there you have it. Sorting one’s beverage containers is the exact moral equivalent of opposing torture, even if you voted for a guy who was pro-torture.

We should all become non-partisan conservatives, it sounds swell. You don’t actually have to identify with anything icky like a political party everyone now hates, and you don’t have to actually take intellectual responsibility for your past advocacy of that party’s main policy stances and propaganda, simply by declaring yourself non-partisan! Very cool.

I’m a non-partisan progressive, by the way. Thought you should know.

Last week’s winner was ‘yo’ in an impressive 25 minutes. It was Warwick, Rhode Island (link to view here). Here’s this week’s, good luck!

A new year, a new Tim Eyman personal profit making scheme. Turns out a 1% cap probably wasn’t enough, so it’s a good thing we did a special session to re-instate it! Way to teach Timmy a lesson! Now he’s likely coming back for more. Wonder what lesson he learned? My guess is that Dems are chumps.

Local governments should just cease operation, that would seem to be far simpler. The market will provide libraries, fire protection and such. I mean, if I want a book, I’ll just buy one I like. I shouldn’t have to pay for books other people like, and I definitely shouldn’t have to pay for firefighters to put out fires in other people’s houses.

And I’m not 65, so I don’t want people to get Social Security unless I get to vote on it. Every year. If I’m mad, distracted or gullible enough to believe political advertising, sorry grandma.

Maybe one of the remaining journalists can ask Tim whose his daddy? Enquiring minds want to know who is going to foot the bill for this silliness now.

Decline to sign, baby, decline to sign.

Awoke this morning to the sound of the power going out (my carbon monoxide dectector gives out a death shriek at the moment of disconnect), and the chilly thought of the five-day outage two years ago.  About 45 minutes later, the power came back on.

It’s amazing how powerless we modern humans feel in the absence of the power.

I don’t know how I’d even look this up, but this has gotta be the first time that all four road teams in a playoff round are favored in Vegas. Weird season.

Against my better judgment, I think I’ll throw out some predictions.

Saturday 1:30pm: Atlanta over Arizona – 38-28

Saturday 5:00pm: Indianapolis over San Diego – 24-21

Sunday 10:00am: Miami over Baltimore – 13-10

Sunday 1:30pm: Philadelphia over Minnesota – 22-6

The story of the young man shot by police at UW is starting to look more and more like a tragic mistake. While it’s still far too early to make any real conclusions, the incident does seem eerily similar to the shooting of Everett man Dustin Willard in November. In both cases, friends and family were shocked to find out that the person they knew to be a law-abiding citizen would point a gun at police. Were they affected by alcohol or drugs? Did they not realize that the people yelling at them were police? Or is there some other explanation? These cases far too often come and go, fading into the oblivion without these questions being answered.

UPDATE: This post at Sound Politics is very disturbing. Regularly following news reports on the drug cartels, incidents like these are happening in greater numbers across the United States…not just in Mexico any more.

Trouble, trouble everywhere, not just with notorious big cases like Madoff.

Today’s wave of dubious deals is more pervasive and grass-roots in nature than the S&L debacle, which primarily involved thrift executives and their borrowers. Developers, mortgage brokers, appraisers, bankers and borrowers alike are under the microscope of state securities regulators and federal prosecutors.

“We’ve always had people fudging the numbers on their loan application to buy the home they wanted to live in,” said Joe Boyer, supervisory special agent for the FBI in Portland. “During the boom, we had people trying to do 50 homes. It was all about the real estate appreciation.”

Boyer is a key member of a mortgage fraud working group in Portland formed among local, state and federal investigators to combat real estate and mortgage fraud.

It’s good that law enforcement is finally taking action, I guess. The horses are out of the barn, down the road and on a plane to an offshore location, sipping tropical drinks and laughing, but hey, it’s something. Basically huge portions of American society became a kleptocracy, and with nobody enforcing existing laws or lending standards to any great extent, it seems like it became socially acceptable to do wrong.

Thus shall the disastrous neo-liberal epoch of 1980-2008 be remembered. Both parties shared in this, and to a certain extent many politicians seem not to have learned a great deal. This is TWICE in the last twenty years this has happened. It’s inexcusable, and more importantly, downright stupid and unnecessary.

While it’s true that proper regulation must be neither too burdensome nor too lax, we’ve lived through an age where the reflexive attitude of most bidness guys and gals, especially in the house building, buying and selling industry, is to oppose regulation just ’cause they wanna. It makes ’em mad and so they run lying third party expenditure ads and so on, kind of like a child holding its breath. And like a naughty child, they are now very, very sorry that they got caught and everything is all messed up.

Babbling about the invisible hand is all fine and dandy, but it’s neither realistic nor much of a policy. The automatic response to anyone still claiming markets will police themselves should be a belly laugh.