Month: May 2004

Walk Olympia. Now, this campaign I can really get behind. I can’t wait.

Nice, my only problem with this, and it is just a little tiny problem is that both funding ideas give less money to sidewalks than to parks. Our park situation in Olympia is pretty good, our sidewalks are almost non-existant. Except in newer cul-de-sacs and developments down on my side of town, there are almost no sidewalks. This means that the higher traffic streets, such as 18th, Boulevard for the most part, Fones and 22nd, lack sidewalks.

I don’t need to talk about this. Dave Ross can deliver the 8th to the Rs for all I care right now.

Dave Ross’s top ten reasons to run for Congress. Well at least he’s taking this seriously. I heard somewhere that he is deciding on Thursday. Today? Next week? Has he already announced and I’m just not paying attention?

Update: Here it is:

And by all indications, KIRO radio personality Dave Ross also will announce that he is running as a Democrat within a week.

Portland in the hunt, not in the hunt. Well I don’t care. Go Monterrey!

I guess it all depends on how you spin it:

Spun well.

Not spun.

I’m having trouble with Jim Francesconi’s candidacy for mayor. The actions of his campaign and his record as a city councilor raise doubts about his ability to be our city’s CEO.

First is his inability to collect the money owed to the city while head of the Bureau of Licensing. According to the bureau’s new director over 10,000 businesses failed to pay their city taxes and over $10 million was lost during Francesconi’s watch. That money would have done a lot to close our city’s budget shortfall.

Plus, he was given access to office space used by the Ball Janik law firm to raise funds. He first failed to report it as an in kind contribution on his campaign finance report, and when once he was caught he amended his report saying that the contribution was worth only $160.

These are the actions of a poor manager.

Humor overload, must mock… Too many jokes

“I applaud the people that are trying to save species that are endangered,” said Gretchen Borck, a lobbyist with the Washington Association of Wheat Growers. “But it might be good that we don’t have dinosaurs now. We’ve gotten oil from the dinosaurs. If we had preserved the dinosaur, we wouldn’t have that oil.”

I’m going to go out on a limb here.

Dave Ross should not run for Congress in the 8th District.

Dan almost got me with his carpet bagger logic a couple of days ago, but my reason is much more simple. We already have a decent candidate in the 8th: Alex Alben.

He’s an ex-RealMedia executive. If you haven’t noticed, we’re doing an ok job electing those types to higher office.

And, he’s already been endorsed by the entire Democratic delegation, plus the sitting Democratic gov. Now, why does the Democrat State Chairman start recruiting another candidate when all the other dems are already lining up behind the guy we already have? That’s my biggest problem with this, we already have a guy.

Two more reasons:

Who is Dave Ross? I know he’s been on the radio for a really long time, and generally agrees with most of what I believe, but there is more to being a Congressman that having decent political views.

Its May. The primary is in September and Alben has already raised $500,000. And, we’re likely facing sheriff I Caught the Green River Killer Dave Reichert in November. I think a Ross and Alben will do more damage to each other than Reichert will endure from his three primary foes. By running Ross against an already strong Dem, we’re weakening ourselves.

Tre Arrow is Not a Terrorist

Let me make one thing perfectly clear, Tre Arrow is a spoiled little brat who was always more interested in his own fame than in the movement he claimed to represent. This is a guy who used a pickup borrowed from the mother of one of his accomplices to torch some log trucks up at Eagle Creek. Plus, he just got caught in Canada trying to shoplift bolt cutters. These are not the actions of a rational decision maker.

Tre is a vandal, and he’s also an arsonist. But he’s not a terrorist. Terrorists kill people indiscriminately. Tre just burned up some equipment. Stupid? Yeah. Immature? You bet. Give the logging industry ammunition to attack environmentalists with? You better believe it. But that’s not terrorism.

Terrorism involves the indiscriminant destruction of human life. It’s about making people afraid to go about their lives because they fear for their safety. Does anyone honestly think that a bunch of big, strong, country loggers would be afraid of a skinny little hippy like Tre? Forget about it. But if you check the USA PATRIOT act for the definition of terrorism it says anyone who tries to force the government to change its policies is a terrorist. It makes no distinction between violent and non-violent force. So, according to the letter of the law, civil disobedience can be defined as terrorist activity.

So Tre gets labeled an eco-terrorist. Removing violent action from the definition of terrorism makes the concept slippery and hard to pin down. This cheapens the meaning of the term, and could turn into a situation where the war against terrorism becomes the war against anyone the government can get away with calling a terrorist.