Danny Westneat reports on an initiative to put Sound Transit up for a revote:
Sound Transit may soon get what it has long had coming: A regional vote on whether to kill its troubled light-rail project.Sounds good to me.An anti-rail group called Trust in Transit has filed a statewide initiative that would force all voter-approved transit agencies to build roughly what they promise in those glossy pre-election brochures.
I'm also told that the initiative campaign has a website, here. They need to gather nearly 200,000 signatures in the next couple of months in order to get the initiative on the November ballot. Do what you can to help.
Not to beat this whole "Religion of Peace" idea to death, but what's the deal with worshippers who throw stones?
The new Sound Transit commuter train from Everett to Seattle is a good deal for somebody, but not for the taxpayers, today's Seattle Times reports: Sounder train is low on riders, high on cost:
Adults pay $3 for each one-way trip on the train. At current ridership levels, that amounts to a taxpayer subsidy of more than $35 for each passenger.That alone would make the Sounder one of the most expensive commuter trains in the country, but the total cost is even more extreme than the figure of "$35 per one-way trip" suggests.
The current subsidy is just for operating costs such as train crews, equipment maintenance and insurance. It doesn't include any part of the line's estimated $393 million capital cost through 2009.When you add in the capital cost amortized over, say 20 years, and then use the the Times estimate of 314 round-trip passengers per day, it comes out that the annual cost per Sounder commuter is $75,500, of which about $74,000 is pure subsidy. As a comparison, this estimate calculates that the average annual subsidy per automobile commuter (15 mile one-way commute) is $2,809. The distance between Everett and Seattle is 28 miles, so the annual subsidy for incremental road capacity to serve the same $74,000 train rider is only $5,243.
Another data point is that typical road construction projects in Washington State cost in the range of $1 to $9 million per lane mile (adjusted for 2002). Even at the high end of that range, adding one more lane of road on the 28 mile stretch between Seattle and Everett would cost $252 million, a lot less than the capital cost of the Sounder.
Washington Gov. Gary Locke today vetoed the Louisiana-style "Top Two" primary that passed the legislature last month. The likely result will be a "Montana-style" open primary that lets every voter vote in any party's primary, but that restricts each voter to a single party per primary election. The voter's choice of party would be kept secret. This strikes me as a very reasonable compromise between openness, privacy and party integrity.
The "Top Two" primary, in which only the top two finishers would go on to the general election, regardless of party, would have both destroyed the parties as viable organizations and also reduced voter choices in the general election.
The Seattle Times lobbied pretty hard for the "Top Two" system. (Unsigned editorials Mar. 10 and Mar. 24, Danny Westneat's column Mar. 17 and Erick Devericks' editorial cartoon Mar. 28). Other newspapers also endorsed the Top Two primary: The Olympian, Mar. 17; The Columbian Mar. 13. I can understand why some newspapers might prefer the "Top Two" system. If parties are rendered irrelevant, candidates lose organizations that can help them get elected and voters lose organizations that help recruit, brand and provide information about candidates. In a party-less world, media outlets with their ability to create name recognition and bestow endorsements become that much more powerful.
The Seattle Post-Intelligencer, on the other hand, opposed the Top Two primary. I think of the P-I as the "Baghdad Jim McDermott" of newspapers. Far to the left, and more interested in expressing its feelings and ideals than in actually having any influence.
Today's Seattle Times editorial is on the right side of the charter school argument, as the Times editorial page has consistently been:
The state's largest teachers union has decided to challenge the new charter-school law. What a waste of time and money. All the effort to get voters to overturn the law will do nothing to improve public education in this state.Indeed.
The worst of Times
Today's lead editorial, "The troubling arc of media concentration", is more self-interested than it is factual or sensical:
Five owners now dominate American television: Viacom, which owns CBS; Disney, which owns ABC; News Corp., which owns Fox; General Electric, which owns NBC; and AOL Time Warner.In other words there are two more news networks than in the good old days of the "Big Three Networks". And then there's the sixth major TV news outlet, PBS. Some might think that a doubling of nightly news shows is an ominous sign of concentration. Others might disagree. And if the Times is so concerned about concentration in the news business, why is it trying to shut down the only other daily newspaper in town?
Floyd McKay's op-ed column is almost always one of the worst things to appear in the Seattle Times and today's column is no exception.
Today's front page story on the recent wave of violence in Uzbekistan refers to the suicide bombers as "alleged terrorists" and "suspected terrorists". Not to jump to conclusions or anything...
Among the distinguished guests at Fawn Spady's campaign kick-off on Sunday (see the previous post) was state Senator Jim Horn, chair of the Senate Highways and Transportation Committee. I chatted with him for a few minutes and asked him about the vehicle registration bill that I've mentioned in connection with the Monorail tax. (Actually, I started the discussion by thanking him for killing the bill).
Sen. Horn told me that he felt that it should be left up to individual localities to decide whether to require vehicle registration at a specific address and that it shouldn't be imposed on the entire state to do it that way. He explained that some people in the state have multiple residences and that the precedent here is that "people live where they say they live". I asked him what he thought about the Department of Licensing adopting an administrative rule to achieve an outcome that the legislature rejected. He said that he did what he felt he needed to do to establish legislative intent and the facts are there if anybody wants to challenge the DOL in court...
Sen. Horn is a good man.
I spent Sunday afternoon at "Ground Zero", of sorts.
The Washington State House of Representatives has a 52-46 Democratic majority. So all the Republicans need to retake the House is a net gain of four seats. According to this news report, the state GOP is optimistic and:
The battleground races are generally in the Puget Sound suburbs and Southwest Washington. [Republican strategist Dave] Mortenson says "ground zero" of the House races will be the showdown between freshman Democrat Judy Clibborn and Republican firebrand Fawn Spady in the 41st on Mercer Island.Our "Ground Zero" afternoon was in fact the Fawn Spady campaign kick-off event at the Mercer Island Jewish Community Center.
Regular readers of the Shark Blog will recognize Fawn as the leader, along with her husband Jim, of the lobbying effort for the state's recently signed charter school law. The Spadys fought for ten years to get the law passed, and developed a bipartisan coalition that prevailed over the fierce resistance from the teacher unions and other entrenched interests. Now that's leadership and perseverence.
Fawn has solid backing from the state GOP. The crowd at the kick-off included a Who's Who of the state legislature and local elected officials. Fawn is a terrific candidate, experienced, ebullient and personable; and she's in a strong position to defeat the freshman Democrat incumbent in the traditionally Republican district. If you live in the 41st District, you'll want to vote for Fawn Spady in November. To volunteer, contribute or learn more, her campaign website is here.
Now I get to blow my own horn... While mingling at the campaign kick-off, I went over to introduce myself to one of the honored guests, a top-ranking member of the state Senate. Before I could say anything he looked at my name tag and then said "I've been reading your stuff. It's really good. Thank you!"
That made my day.
Washington Senator Patty Murray would do well to debate her Republican challengers. It almost looked like Murray was challenging her main opponent, George Nethercutt, to a debate. The Spokane Spokesman-Review reports:
In a story Tuesday in Roll Call, the manager of the Murray campaign was dismissive of Nethercutt's financial support from the American Medical Association, saying her boss has a better record on health care. "If they want to have a debate on health care, we welcome that debate," Carol Albert said.But Murray didn't offer her invitation at face value. Her campaign later said:Nethercutt and his campaign pounced on that statement and sent a letter agreeing to debate.
"I'm excited about debating Senator Murray. I'm taking her invitation at face value," he said Wednesday.
she was talking about "the rhetorical type of debate that candidates go through, in the news media, during a campaign."It wouldn't necessarily be unreasonable to wait until after the primary to see who the Republican nominee is before there's a debate. On the other hand, there's a good chance that the state will go ahead with the (regrettable) Cajun-style Top-Two primary that was just approved by the legislature. In that case, there is no "Republican nominee". So Murray should offer to debate all candidates, regardless of party, who are showing at a reasonable minimum threshhold in the polls. The first debate should take place as soon as possible. Or is the "mom in tennis shoes" afraid she can't hold her own?Any face-to-face, Lincoln-Douglas style matchup should wait until after Nethercutt wins the GOP nomination, she said.
"We'll be happy to discuss the possibility of debates, after the primary in September," she said.
Hat tip: Ron Hebron
George Bush, Nov. 6, 2001:
"You're either with us or against us in the fight against terror."Hamas warlord Abdel Aziz-Rantisi, Mar. 28, 2004:
"We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon"He's not exactly with us, is he.
Dr. Rantisi must want martyrdom badly enough that he's even giving Israelis P.R. cover to make their decision even easier!
The Washington Education Association, the state affiliate of the non-terrorist National Education Association, has announced that it will launch a ballot initiative to overturn the state's recently passed charter school law.
The WEA has over 76,000 members, each of whom is required to forfeit an average $745 of their salary each year in union dues as a condition of teaching in a public school. This is effectively a direct but off-the-books transfer of $56 million of the taxpayer's money to the teacher unions every year. Much of the WEA's budget goes toward influencing the political process (often illegally) in order to maintain the union's unaccountable monopoly on public education spending. Charter schools, whose teachers are not required to join the WEA, are a threat to the union monopoly, especially if charter schools perform better than unionized public schools.
Although membership in the WEA is voluntary, paying dues to the WEA is mandatory. Maybe it's time for a ballot initiative that would dismantle the WEA altogether, or at least permit public school teachers to opt out of the union entirely and keep their entire paycheck.
A few students at my alma mater, the University of Wisconsin-Madison, are suing for cheaper beer:
A Minneapolis law firm Wednesday filed a class-action suit against 24 Madison bars and the Dane County Tavern League alleging a conspiracy to illegally fix drink prices through bans on late-night weekend drink specials.It's a tough job market out there, boys. It wouldn't hurt to cut back on the boozing and crack a book for a change.The suit, filed in Dane County Circuit Court on behalf of three bar patrons, seeks "tens of millions of dollars" in damages for all customers allegedly cheated by the practice. It also would break the "cartel," as the lawsuit refers to the group of bars who participated in the ban, and seeks to reinstate "competitive pricing."
Hat tip: Matt Rosenberg.
Irene and I were married five years ago today.
Thank you for the best five years of my life, sweetheart. May there be many, many more.
Seattle Times columnist Danny Westneat quotes me in today's column about the Monorail tax.
This is sort of an update to the story of the "letter that was never printed", that I mention below.
Here is a letter to the editor that the Seattle Times never printed.
Yesterday's Seattle Times editorial condemning Israel for the extermination of master Jew-killer Ahmed Yassin justified its disapproval by noting
British Foreign Minister Jack Straw was unequivocal: Assassination "is unacceptable, it is unjustified and it is very unlikely to achieve its objectives."For some reason, 200,000 seems to be a popular size for crowds of seething bloodthirsty anti-Semites. Several references report on Hitler's rallies in Nuremberg during the 1920s and 1930s.The 200,000 Palestinians who took to the streets to mourn Yassin's death suggest the foreign minister is right.
1929:
The massed ranks of Hitler's followers marched for the first time on a grand scale in 1929 at the big Party Rally in Nürnberg. Over 200,000 people arrived in special trains.From the movie Triumph of the Will (1935)
HITLER: "One year ago, we met for the first time on this field; it was the first general review of the political leaders of the National Socialist Party. Now 200,000 men have been assembled; summoned not by their mere hearts but also their fidelity...1938:
"I went to the stadium...to hear an address Hitler was making to Nazi political leaders gathered from all over Germany. The stadium was packed with nearly 200,000 spectators... "If the Seattle Times ever learns of Hitler's popularity, it may will condemn the United States for pushing the Nazi leader into suicide.
Today's Seattle Times coverage of Israel's liquidation of genocide promoter Ahmed Yassin is so astonishingly pro-Hamas that the Islamist ethnic cleansers of Hamas couldn't have purchased more sympathetic P.R. And that's just the "news" page. The editorial page is even more fawning in its memorial to the wheelchair-bound mass murderer.
"Oh, That Liberal Media" has my full entry on the subject.
