HorsesAss.Org

I love irony.

You know, like when a snotty suburban newspaper like the King County Journal runs a divisively arrogant editorial bashing the region’s urban core (“While suburbs shine, Seattle seems shabby“)… only to learn a few hours later that they’re being shut down by their new corporate owners.

Talk about shabby. At least some of us urine-stained, crack-addicted city folk still read newspapers.

I don’t particularly like the Journal — it’s not an engaging read and its op/ed page often out-Blethens the Blethen-owned Seattle Times — but I don’t particularly celebrate the passing of any daily newspaper. Not even the sucky ones.

Still, you gotta love the irony.

Who are you supporting for President in 2008?

The folks here at Horses’ Ass have our picks. Here they are:

Goldy: Al Gore
David only supports candidates who have both a blockbuster film and a best selling book to their credit. That means it was either Al Gore or Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee, who starred in I Heart Huckabees, and wrote the best selling book Quit Digging Your Grave with a Knife and Fork.

Geov Parrish: Mitt Romney
Geov remarked once that he wanted a President who was progressive on health care issues AND wore that weird Morman underwear. Well, one out of two ain’t bad!

Darryl: Well… um…
Darryl is undecided at the moment. It’s either Tom Vilsack or Barack Obama. It’s a battle between Obama’s knowledge of the soybean market, versus Vilsack’s charisma and energy. I’ll get back to you with Darryl’s answer.

Will: John Edwards
I am personally inspired by the guy. Any candidate who wants to end poverty is somebody who is not playing it safe.

But nevermind us experts. Share your picks in the comments.

I remember when it happened.

It was the fall of ’04. In the P-I was a puff piece about Mariners players and how they were going to vote in the presidential election. No surprise, as the team favored Bush by a large margin. Mariners second baseman Bret Boone was quoted saying this:

“I wouldn’t say I’m a hard-core conservative, but I don’t like a lot of Democratic views,” second baseman Bret Boone said. “I don’t like big government. I like small government.”

Considering Boone’s former workplace, Safeco Field, is a publicly funded facility, you have to ask: was this guy hit in the head a few too many times? Does he understand that a “big government” handout provided him a means to make a salary? What a goof!

So, that’s “when it happened,” or in other words, when I stopped supporting government subsidies for professional sports.

It wasn’t always that way for me. I supported the Mariners and the Seahawks in their effort to build new stadiums. After all, the Kingdome was a dump. It was an awful place to watch baseball. For football, it was only slightly better than Memorial Stadium. I felt the argument could be made that they needed new digs. I also believed, erroneously it turned out, that pro sports were a boost to the economy. In any case, I like baseball and football, so who cares, right?

The Sonics were too busy winning during the 90’s to worry about asking for public money for a new stadium. Still, in 1996, they got one. Key Arena opened, with all the idiots in City Hall and the newspapers talking about how great it was that an arena could be financed so “creatively.” Turns out it was a bunch of bullshit, and that the Sonics couldn’t keep making payments out of their luxury boxes because, well, they couldn’t sell many of them at Sonics home games. See, the deal was that the Sonics would pay rent from revenues produced trough selling certain amenities at Key Arena like luxury boxes. This worked well during the “Reign Man” and “The Glove” era. Boxes are easy to sell when the team is winning. But when the team started sucking, new ownership, in the form of coffee dork Howard Schultz, wanted out of the deal.

Schultz saw how much money was being made around the NBA by owners with teams in pimped-out, ultra-modern facilities. Howard also wanted the revenue earned by the arena when the Sonics weren’t even playing (like a Paul McCartney concert, or a comic book convention, or whatever). Other owners in other cities were able to sweet talk government into paying for these arenas, making them even more profitable for ownership. (Read lots more about the reality of pro basketball stadiums here)

When Schultz went to Olympia to get his money for a new building, he was turned down, and went home in a huff. He and his group sold out to Oklahoma City business folks headed by Clay Bennett. I don’t hold any ill will against Bennett for buying the team and subsequently doing his best to get public money to build an arena in Renton or Bellevue, but I still don’t want to give it to him. I’m not of the same mind as Goldy; I don’t think that a dollar used to refurbish a stadium is necessarily a dollar taken out of a Washington state classroom, but it’s starting to feel that way. When Rep. Ross Hunter rules out any kind of state income tax on election night while some government leaders are jumping out of their skins at the chance to fork over public dough to sports teams (hello, Sen. Margarita Prentice!), a guy can get a little pissed off.

Here’s the new plan. Until the NBA can fix it’s business model, no public dough. If it means the Sonics are gone to OKC, that that’s a-OK with me. Oklahoma City is dying for a team (they wanted to keep the New Orleans Hornets, but they flew home after the flood). Let them have the headache of pro sports. I’m finished with assholes likes David Stern who come into our house trying to shake us down for cash. Fuck him. If the NBA can do without Seattle, then Seattle can do without the NBA. Same goes for those NASCAR guys. Until their plan for a speedway in Kitsap County looks less like a pyramid scheme and more like a good investment, no money should be spent.

If we’re going to subsidize sports, let’s put some cash into Chehalis’ rodeo park (whatever the fuck that is). Let’s build that hockey venue in Kent so the Seattle Thunderbirds can ditch the Key Arena, which has always sucked for hockey. We should fix up baseball stadiums in Yakima and Spokane. Pierce County and Tacoma should look into a new ballpark, with the State Legislature chipping in. How about a new ballpark right down by the water, near downtown? We could extend that dope streetcar right to the ballpark. Tacoma folks, chime in and tell me what’s what.

Our leaders should never close the door to investing in sports, but we’ve got to draw the line somewhere. Let’s say “no” to whoring ourselves to the NBA and say “yes” to our minor league teams and the cities that host them. At twenty bucks for a family of four, Tacoma Rainiers baseball at Cheney Stadium is a mighty fine deal. That’s where I’ll be this spring. With a cold one, of course.

I’m filling in this week for Dave Ross and Ron Reagan on Newsradio 710-KIRO from 9AM to 1PM. Here’s a peek at today’s line-up:

Hour 1: The Sonics want a new arena and NASCAR wants a new track… and both want hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer subsidy. Are public funded arenas a good economic investment, and can elected officials really justify financing an arena the voters have rejected?

“Pro sports stadiums don’t bolster local economies”

Hour 2: As per-student state education funding continues to lag behind inflation, schools are increasingly relying on PTA’s to make up the difference… leaving schools in poor neighborhoods at a loss for cash. Is this really a reasonable way to fund public schools?

Hour 3: A proposed compact with the Spokane tribe could spark a massive expansion of gambling in WA state, but does nothing to address our growing epidemic of problem gambling. Jennifer McCausland of the Teen Gambling Prevention Project joins me.

Hour 4: TBA

Tune in (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

It took forever, folks, but it’s up here. I’m not doing the usual write-up. We talked about the s&*# we normally talk about, yadda yadda yadda. You’ve got your new episode. Stop whining.

Gerald Ford, the 38th President of the United States died today. He was 93.

The man was President. He lived a full and relatively healthy 93 years. You don’t mourn a death like that. You celebrate the life.

I’m a pretty partisan guy, but apart from pardoning Richard Nixon, I hold nothing against President Ford. In fact, I think we were pretty lucky to have somebody like him in the White House at that very tumultuous moment in our nation’s history. While I was only 13 at the time, I actually secretly preferred Ford over Jimmy Carter in the 1976 general election. (My personal misgivings about Carter were misplaced, but my political instincts proved to be dead on.)

Hmm. I wonder if President Ford will be given the same sort of lavish state funeral afforded President Reagan?

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.

Had a busy holiday visiting with family? Need a drink to recover? Come join us for some hoppy beer and hopped up political schmoozing.

Not in Seattle? Washington liberals will also be drinking tonight in the Tri-Cities, and a full listing of Washington’s 11 Drinking Liberally chapters is available here.

UPDATE:
Oops. Turns out the Montlake Ale House is closed tonight. So no Drinking Liberally tonight. Oh man… I’m getting the DL DT’s.

I’m filling in this week for Dave Ross and Ron Reagan on 710-KIRO, so tune in from 9AM to 1PM and hear me make an ass out of myself. Or maybe I’ll be good. Who knows?

We’re still working out today’s lineup, and I’ll update this post as the day firms up, but here’s what it looks like now:

9AM: Do the super-rich have an inner life? Thomas Goetzl writes in today’s Seattle P-I about the growing gap between the megawealthy and the rest of us, with top executives getting $40 million bonuses, average folk struggle to get by. But then Goetzl goes on to ponder whether all this money actually makes the rich folk any happier. Hmm.

10AM: Can we end homelessness in Seattle?

11AM: Is America ready for its first Moslem congressman? Rep. Keith Ellison (D-MN) will be sworn in on Jan. 4, and he’ll be swearing his oath on the Koran. Why is this creating such a controversy in a nation that deliberately separates church and state?

12PM: What’s happening in the other Washington? Former TNT political correspondent Ken Vogel is now an investigative reporter for the new Capitol Hill publication The Politico, and he joins us to talk about the upcoming session. What can we expect from the new Democratic majority? Call in and ask Ken.

Tune in (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

I’m watching a forum on C-Span from February of this year. It’s moderated by Tim Russert and includes former RNC chief Ed Gillespie, Democratic advisor James Carville, and columnists E.J. Dionne and Peggy Noonan.

You can watch it here.

Merry Christmas. Talk amongst yourselves.

It may be Christmas Eve, but it sure as hell won’t be a silent night on “The David Goldstein Show” from 7PM to 10PM tonight on Newsradio 710-KIRO. I don’t have any scheduled guests at the moment, but I’ve got a number of topics I’m just itching to discuss, including:

• Is it time for a state income tax? Republicans complain that Gov. Gregoire’s new budget will result in budget deficits several years out, but our sales tax heavy tax system would produce long term deficits even if we freeze the size of state government. At what point do we face reality and either reform our tax structure (the most regressive in the nation) or just simply accept our destiny as the Alabama of the West?

• Is this a Christian nation, or just a nation of Christians? And either way, why do so many politically prominent Christians feel so comfortable getting so damn pissy about it? Locally, mega-church preacher and Republican activist Pastor Joe Fuiten describes Jews as a bunch of money-grubbing merchants who should thank Jesus for their yuletide profits… and barely anybody bats an eye. Nationally, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) warns that if we don’t reform immigration “there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office.” Heaven forfend.

• Who’s afraid of the big bad Rossi? For two years now we’ve been hearing from the WA GOP about how they’re going to get revenge for the 2004 gubernatorial election, which they claim was stolen, but which actually turned out to be an excruciatingly close tie that broke just barely for Gregoire, in turn breaking the hearts of Republicans who came oh-so-close. First it was Ron Sims who was supposed to pay the piper, and I-912 was supposed to be a shot across the bow. Then Mike McGavick was supposed to benefit from a statewide backlash. (Yeah. How’d that work out for you?) And now a new poll shows Gregoire besting Rossi 51 percent to 40 percent. Ouch. So, is Dino Rossi a one hit wonder, or the next governor of Washington?

• An inhabited island off the coast of India has disappeared beneath rising sea levels. Oops.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I’ll be filling in for Dave Ross and Ron Reagan all week, from 9AM to 1PM.

The Seattle Times thinks that Gov. Chris Gregoire’s budget is too high because it leaves the state with projected budget deficits out into the future.

Well, yeah… but even a budget that merely keeps pace with growth in demand for public services (which roughly tracks growth in personal income) would result in projected budget deficits out into the future. In fact, even if we ratchet government down and only try to have spending keep pace with population growth plus inflation, we’ll still end up with budget deficits projected indefinitely out into the future.

That is because we have an inadequate and unfair tax structure that simply cannot keep pace with our economy, resulting in a structural budget deficit as far as the eye can see.

For too long the state has dealt with this structural deficit by delaying investment in critical infrastructure. The result is a multi-billion dollar backlog in transportation maintenance and construction, and a higher education system that’s fails to accommodate all our state’s college bound students… and at an ever increasing tuition cost. Spending per K-12 student is amongst the lowest in the nation, and Spokane and Seattle area teacher salaries adjusted for local cost of living are near the bottom of the 100 largest metropolitan areas nationwide.

There is a popular fiction — which the Times editorial board fails to refute — that Washington is a high tax state. It is not. In fact, it’s rather middling. And average state and local taxes as a percentage of personal income have dropped steadily since I moved here in 1992. I pay no state income tax, and while my property taxes have more than doubled since I purchased my home in 1997, they are less than half that of a similar house in the Philadelphia suburb in which I was raised.

A tax structure that heavily relies on taxing the sale of goods simply cannot sustain adequate revenue growth in our 21st Century service economy. It has also created the most regressive state and local tax structure in the nation.

If you earn less than $20,000 a year you live in the highest taxed state in the union. If you earn over $200,000 a year you live in one of the lowest. Unless and until we reform our tax structure so as to tax all families more fairly, we will never adequately address our state’s long term structural budget deficit. And we’ll never have a fair and adequate tax structure until we implement an income tax.

Tune in to a special Saturday night edition of “The David Goldstein Show” from 7PM to 10PM tonight on Newsradio 710-KIRO, as I fill-in for Frank Shiers. Subject to change, here are the topics for tonight’s show:

7PM: What have we learned (if anything) from last week’s power outage? Both the Governor and the Seattle City Council have asked for reports from the powers that be, evaluating our emergency response and suggesting what we might do better. Here’s one idea: mandate backup generators at filling stations. Here’s another: do a damn better job maintaining the existing infrastructure. You’ve got a better idea? Give me a call.

8PM: Is it time to legalize pot? At over a billion dollars a year, marijuana is now Washington state’s number two cash crop, just behind, well, you know… apples. At what point do we finally admit that our silly little War on Drugs is going even worse than our war in Iraq? Wouldn’t it make more sense to just legalize pot, regulate it… and tax the hell out of it?

9PM: Is this a Christian nation, or just a nation of Christians? And either way, why do so many politically prominent Christians feel so comfortable getting so damn pissy about it? Locally, mega-church preacher and Republican activist Pastor Joe Fuiten describes Jews as a bunch of money-grubbing merchants who should thank Jesus for their yuletide profits… and barely anybody bats an eye. Nationally, Rep. Virgil Goode (R-VA) warns that if we don’t reform immigration “there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office.” Heaven forfend.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

PROGRAMMING NOTE:
I’ll be on at my usual 7PM to 10PM time tomorrow night, and then filling in for Dave Ross and Ron Reagan all week, from 9AM to 1PM.

Happy Festivus! Here’s Gov. Jim Doyle (D-WI) with his Festivus pole.

• EFFin’ Unsound is fast becoming a must-read, in large part to it’s author Carl Ballard and contributor TheHim. The both of them never let a stupid post at a conservative blog go unmocked. Here’s a recent gem.
• Public financing of judicial races isn’t enough, says Lynn.
  

  My question is, “Why stop there?” The timing is good to jump on public financing for the judicial races given the insane amounts of money that was spent on the three Supreme Court races between the primary and the general elections. I understand that. Plus, Gregoire is cautious by disposition. But what an opportunity to go all the way and ask for public financing of all statewide and legislative races.

  I’m very interested in any blogger who has a credible arguement AGAINST public finance, as I’m sure one exists.

• If you have iTunes, download this now, while it’s still free.
• There’s been excessive spinning over whether or not the Governor actually made a decision regarding the Viaduct. Dan’s satisfied:
  

  The fact is, if she had decided to take it upon herself alone to decide a matter that’s more a Seattle concern than anyone else’s, she would have been lambasted for overstepping her authority and power.

  If she had chosen in favor of a replacement viaduct, she would have pissed off one half of the people, and if she had decided on a tunnel she would have pissed off the other side.

  Count me as one of those that thinks she made the correct decision[…]

  If the replacement option is “financial viable”, and the tunnel option isn’t (according to the Governor herself), why vote between the two? Why present voters an option that isn’t paid for? No, I think the real “punt” the Governor made was by advocating that Seattle vote between two options, only one of which is feasable. As Josh Feit says, this will result in selection of the rebuild option. The Seattle City Council, which lists another Viaduct as its third choice, ought to be sharpening their knives over the Governor’s actions.

• How to replace a popular county executive: Pierce County Edition.

Business is booming:

Washington is among the top five pot-producing states, producing a $1 billion-a-year crop that is second in value only to the state’s famed apple harvest, according to an analysis released this week by a public-policy researcher.

Hmm. If the state legalized and taxed pot at the same rate it taxes non-cigarette tobacco products (75 percent of the retail price,) that would produce about $750 million in revenues a year.

Yeah, yeah… I’m making a lot of bogus assumptions there, but the point is that our embarrassingly ineffective war on drugs has only succeeding in creating a burgeoning black market, costing the state hundreds of millions of dollars in lost tax revenues… not to mention the many millions more spent interdicting, prosecuting and jailing pot offenders. This is money that could not only be spent on important public services like health care and education, but also on treatment and prevention programs that couldn’t possibly be any less effective than our existing efforts at interdiction.

There’s absolutely no way to prevent people from growing, selling and consuming pot. It isn’t just climate or an abundance of hippies that makes WA a prime pot-growing region — hell, Tennessee and Kentucky rank second and third respectively, for a combined $9.4 billion crop that makes WA look like a community pea-patch. So if we can’t stop farmers from growing reefer in the heart of the old Confederacy, how are we going to stop it here in the liberal-tarian Northwest?

Of course, we can’t.

Prohibition just doesn’t work, and at least when it comes to the relatively innocuous social harm caused by marijuana — arguably less harmful than alcohol — it just doesn’t make sense. That’s reality. I’m not saying we should encourage or promote our local pot industry, but it’s far past time we legalize, regulate and tax it.

As for those who continue to attempt to make rational arguments in favor of marijuana prohibition, well… I don’t know what they’re smoking.

DISCLAIMER:
I did occasionally smoke pot during college, but no longer do because it now makes me physically uncomfortable. So I have no dog in this fight.