Olympia Time

History, politics, people of Oly WA

Author: Emmett O'Connell (Page 72 of 176)

Erik Landaas kicks off outside the district

February 24, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Erik Landaas is running for county commissioner in the third commissioner district, but he’s starting his campaign way outside the district way over east in the Lacey Community Center.

And, his website is ugly too. Frames? Seriously?!

Here’s a short list of locations Landaas could have considered:

  • The Viewpoint room at Tugboat Annies.
  • The Black Lake Grange Hall.
  • Practically any bar, restaurant or pizza joint in Tumwater.
  • El Sarape, for example, has a big back room. Its on Capitol Way in Tumwater.
  • Ballyhoos. Nice place.
  • Erik Landaas’s house. He lives in the district!

I know, the seat is elected by the entire county in the general, but he first has to win the primary, which is elected by the district. And, at least theoretically, commissioners are elected to represent their districts. So it sends a bad message to not start running in your district.

More state constitution fun

February 23, 2009 / / 1 Comment

I recently had a the joy of learning more about the Washington State constitution.

Some people should know more:

Ms. Kimberlie Struiksma has filed a ballot measure (Initiative Measure No. 1040) that would, among other things, “prohibit state use of public money or lands for anything that denies or attempts to refute the existence of a supreme ruler of the universe, including textbooks, instruction or research.”

The State Constitution:

No public money or property shall be appropriated for or applied to any religious worship, exercise or instruction, or the support of any religious establishment…

God bless those atheists.

Olympia city council early campaign notes

February 22, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Hayes out (we hardly knew ya):

it has occurred to me that the time commitment and the potential personal cost to myself and my family is too high.

“Potential personal cost?” Boy, what could that mean?

Sermonti in (who are ya?):

“If we change what Olympia is and what we stand for, we won’t have a downtown, but if we refuse to change at all, we may well not have a downtown either,” he said.

What… da… dog… does that mean? We won’t have a downtown? Wha? Ah man, I’m confused.

How TVW helps citizen media, civic dialogue

February 22, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Last year when TVW launched its embeddable and time markable media tool, it was mostly because political bloggers griped for it. Its application by bloggers has been slow going (I hardly ever see anyone using it), but this week, something cool happened.

Both sides of the local isthmus debate went up to the Capitol to testify of house bills that would regulate development downslope of the capitol campus. Both groups used the TVW embed tool to highlight their testimony. Here is Friends of the Waterfront and a much more agressive use by Oly2012.

While the local legacy media was only able to give the hearing a short story in the paper, TVW gave local groups the tools they needed to give the issue a much more thorough airing. It took a commenter to even link to the actual TVW footage at all.

Local debates are ripe for this kind of use of media. It would be great to see if TVW would be able to export its custom flash player to local governments so they could offer the same kind of embedable and time customized media tools that the state legislature deliberations enjoy.

Actually, wouldn’t it be great if city’s like Olympia, instead of using an out of state company like Granicus, be able contract with a local non-profit whose sole purpose is to distribute public deliberations? I’m not saying that Granicus does a bad job, but they’re an out of state for profit company when we have an in-state not-for-profit that could, if they decided to, do the same thing only better.

Is this the bookend? Can we move on now? (Griffey is back)

February 19, 2009 / / 1 Comment

I was online last night and half my RSS feeds (it seemed like at least) were people chiming that Griffey Jr. had returned. Even Andrew, normally a political blogger, is piling on. Not that Andrew isn’t known for piling on.

Honestly, I wonder how many people would have cheered if Baseball America had ranked our farm system in the top 5. We were #11 last year, by the way. That at least would be an indignation that our team would be a winner in the next few years.

What I hope for is that Griffey is able to perform well, get 500 at bats and end his career as a Mariner. I hope he goes into the Hall of Fame and as a Mariner. But, all of that sort of stuff is emotional.

What I really want is for this to be a bookend to our emotions regarding the Mariners since 1995 for most, but since 1989 for me. This backlog of emotions is where we get the “Edgar as batting coach” and “Dan Wilson as manager” sort of thing. That somehow if we go to the recycling bin and brush off the guys we used to love and plop them in an appropriate spot, September 1995 might somehow magically appear again.

Ken Griffey Jr. is 39 years old. He had a .425 slugging percentage last year between two teams and drove in 71 runs. All of that isn’t bad, but signing him is an expensive way to recognize that our memories of victory are more powerful than our logic of what we know it takes to build a winner.

I’m hoping this is more like signing Ken Griffey Sr. in 1990. And, that five years from now — with a new person in Niehaus’s spot and with a bunch of guys that we don’t know now but we’ll eventually love — we’ll have a good reason to wait in our cars for the game to be over.

I just love this article:

The Wedding reception for Gayle Frink and Randy Schulz at the Seattle Yacht Club will have to carry on without who sits in his car in the parking lot with the engine off and the radio on. He dares not leave, not as long as the Mariners have one last turn to bat, one last turn to alchemize imminent defeat into another magical victory.

It is Sept. 24, a Sunday afternoon. Yes, this is a blessed, once-in-a-lifetime event. It’s the first time the Mariners have been in first place this late in the season in their 19 years of existence. Cripes, they had never been in first place even as late as Memorial Day. Gayle’s wedding? It’s her second.

So the radio and the listener cannot be separated, as if the connection is magnetic. Seattle, trailing by a run, has one man on against Oakland A’s closer Dennis Eckersley in the bottom of the ninth. The voice of Mariners broadcaster Dave Niehaus crackles through the car’s speakers: “Here comes the pitch to Tino…. Swung on and belted!…. Deep to right-field…. And that will be…. Flying away! The Mariners win it, 9-8, in perhaps the most incredible game in their history! And 46,000 fans are losing their minds in Seattle! Tonight, I guarantee you, it will be sleepless in Seattle for everybody who was here today, including me!”

Holy matrimony! The Mariners have done it again. Now the guest can join the wedding party. He takes the keys from the ignition, slips out of his car and shuts the door. And this is what he hears: the whoomp of about 20 other car doors closing at almost the same time. Other guests have been captivated by the Mariners too. Soon they are high-fiving in the yacht club parking lot. The party has just begun.

Lisa Hayes wants your comments (bad speller 2)

February 17, 2009 / / 0 Comments

The city council candidate has a website and what looks like a blog post with comments enabled. Not sure if there is a moderation feature, but I’d say give her some comments.

Also, seriously not trying to pick on Hayes too much for bad spelling, but this just rubbed me wrong: “Looking out my bedroom window I see Capitol Lake, the Sound, the Capital, and on a clear day Mount Rainer.” I can understand not using the correct capitol/capital usage, but when you used it correctly just a few words before, now that is weird. Did you think that Capitol Lake referred to something other than the Capitol?

3 thoughts on Nafziger’s “Fog of Lawmaking”

February 15, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Here’s an entire post from Nafzblog that had been taken down (could be up again by now, who the heck knows?):

Legislatures and congresses are full of conspiracies. Democrats conspire to raise taxes. Republicans conspire to cut social programs. Committee chairs conspire to take credit for things committee members do and conspire to kill their bills. Leadership conspires to control committee chairs and to kill divergent members’ bills in the rules committee. Staff people conspire to leave other staff people out of the loop. Legislative leaders conspire to hold secrets from other members to achieve conspiratorial purposes.

Behind all these conspiracies is a deeply held view that somebody must be in charge and is running the place. Their friends and allies are in the loop and everyone else is left out.

Unfortunately, such command and control management is rare. For better or worse, legislative bodies are highly decentralized. Individual legislators are elected from areas across the state who have different interests, populations, races and industries.

Overlay the fact that a part time legislator has to work at high speed, around the clock to finish the public’s business in a 105 day session.

In the State House, 23 committee chairs run committees and focus on specific areas and aren’t always able to focus on the big picture. Leadership struggles to link the views of all the committees together with all the interests of legislators from varied districts who often have contradictory interests. They must then coordinate their actions with another house, the Senate, and the Governor all who are run by different people with different points of view.

I hope you are getting the picture. In general, for most of the legislative session, legislators are working in the fog. As they labor through the process of studying bills and talking to constituents, they only can barely see the outlines of what is happening in other committees with other bills or with other staff people. Unable to get a clear picture, many of us then imagine conspiracies.

The fact of the matter is Democracy is messy and sometimes unclear. As Winston Churchill said, “Democracy is the worst form of government except for all those others that have been tried.”

Churchill, ever the political philosopher, then said “The best argument against democracy is a five-minute conversation with the average voter.” Which is nice to know, but isn’t my point.

1. With the “Fog of Lawmaking” theory and the divergent views from across the state, it makes sense why writers, bloggers, observers and reporters would lean so heavily on “Olympia” as a metonymic device for “state government.”

2. “Fog of Lawmaking” would actually make a great blog. Take three or four separate policy issues and try to shine a light on them throughout the session. Someone like Nafziger could do it, if he could ever keep all of his posts on his blog (smirk).

3. 105 days isn’t enough time to really govern. The Washington legislature should be closer to full time with closer to fully paid members. Our state is too big to depend on a part time legislature.

FOCA strawman vs. Bread of the World afterthought

February 15, 2009 / / 0 Comments

Three weeks or so after the FOCA-mania at St. Mikes (with no bill actually having been introduced to congress), I finally see the double standard for political issues at church.

Inside the bulletin, there is a notice for a letter writing campaign from “Bread of the World.” Granted, it was a full page notice with another article a few pages deeper, but this is a far cry from the sermon and postcards being passed down the pew version for FOCA a few weeks back.

I don’t have a problem with politics in church. I think its healthy to be informed how your faith and public policy intersect.

What I have a problem with is the double standard on which we treat political issues in the Catholic Church. If its a “life” issue, we deal with it full-throated. For other issues, you know like feeding the hungry, there’s room in the bulletin, but not on the pulpit or in the pew. And, you want to write a letter? Use your own stamp.

Bread of the world does make it easier than that with this online letter writing tool that I’m going to take advantage of.

Bonus FOCA: Here’s a recent FactCheck.org update on FOCA. Differing views on its impacts. A sort of “Rorschach blot” of policy. Depending on what side of the debate you fall on defines what you see in the intent and impact of the legislation. Makes it even less likely that it would ever get passed.

The sad part about the above update is that it gave me the feeling of homily as email spam. Ugh.

Rich Nafziger pulls his blog down again (gaaaaa! And, puts it back up again))

February 15, 2009 / / 0 Comments

UPDATE (like literally moments later): No sooner did I write this that he’s up with two new posts. His old archive is still gone though. See below to find that.

Last week, Rich Nafziger (local blogger and senate dem chief of staff at the Big-Greek-Building) wrote a funny blog about the governor (“Hoover Award” Ha!). He first took the post down and then his entire blog. As of right now, if you go to his blog, it will be empty of posts.

Nafziger would have a much better blog if he didn’t pull it down so often. He’s done this before, a couple of times at least. Once (as I remember it) soon after the Olympia School Board began to become interesting and then when he left the school board for his current job.

I shared all of the recent posts from his blog that reached my feed reader, so if you go to my shared items, you can scroll around and find all of them. Aside from the Hoover piece, the rest of his blog is pretty smart and harmless. I’d actually love for more people like Nafziger to take the time and seriously maintain a blog the way he had.

It is sad that he feels the need to pull back from blogging so often. I am going to take the liberty of having saved his posts on my shared items

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