Olympia Time

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Category: Washington Politics (Page 24 of 27)

Mark Gardner: new blogger

May 1, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Noemie writes a measured, yet extremely long, post about here concerns with Darcy Burner. I’ve been much less measured with my concerns over Dwight Pelz.

Mark Gardner sees civil war. But, you know what Mark, this is what blogging is, in a way. Its about writing the things that at one point you kept private and shared only with close associates.

Its not just pining for Dixie Lee Ray (and, yes, here) and screwing up the English language. So, sorry, no civil war here.

And, dude, you know what? Those tags you use under your post should at least attempt to be accurate: 2008 Presidential doesn’t relate to a congressional campaign, sorry.

Paid per signature ban has open field in Montana

April 25, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Remember Rep. Sherry Appleton’s idea to ban the paid-per-signature initiative model (here and here)?

Looks like Montana is going to pass that reform, along with a few others, after a big debacle last summer. The attention is being paid to a ban of out of state signature gatherers though, not the paid-per-signature ban that got everyone all fired up here.

It probably helps that three initiatives were thrown off the ballot last year because of fraud.

By the way, in case you were wondering, and I know you were, Montana is one of the states that allows printer sized initiative petitions.

Participatory democracy and caucuses

April 24, 2007 / / 2 Comments

The participatory democracy argument in favor of caucuses is disingenuous at worst and misguided at best. Last night when we were debating whether to support a primary election or caucus system for next year’s choosing of presidential delegates, two people argued the participatory democracy side of the caucuses.

This isn’t a direct quote, but it gets pretty close to what one of the guys was talking about:

It takes more of a commitment to come to a caucus, very little commitment to vote in a primary. We want to encourage commitment, not just drop in participation.

And

The caucus system is where people are coming together, and talking, it’s a real plus. It shows that the people in the state of Washington are really interested in creating relationships with people in their communities.

I agree with the sentiment of both of those arguments, caucuses are awesome in that they are participatory. People come together and chat, which is much more what democracy should be about than just indicating your preference in private.

That said, the Washington State Democratic Party does nothing else beyond the caucuses to encourage participatory democracy. Actually, its even worse. Before last night’s vote state party chairman Dwight Pelz gave a talk to the 22nd LD meeting (which every quarter happens right before the TCD meeting). He spelled out the ground game plan for 2008, which centered around a lot of people coming to the caucuses.

When all those folks are sitting on their hands while the precinct results are being tabulated, we PCOs are supposed to chat them up to see who we can get interested in volunteering with the party until election day. “We can use them for the next six months,” was something he said towards the end of his talk.

The caucuses aren’t about coming together and knowing your neighbors, if they were we would be doing them more often. They’re about recruiting ground troops for the fall of 2008.

What was implied to me was that after November of 2008, we don’t really care what happens to those folks. Some of them may stay on and stay engaged, but we’re not really worried about that.

The precinct caucuses should be the end result of a civic engagement campaign, not the beginning of a faux engagement campaign. People should come to the caucuses because the party is relevant and important to them in their community, not because we’re blackmailing them to come because its their only opportunity to vote in the Democratic primary.

Youth protest in Seattle (this is not called “The Kids are Alright,” although that would be accurate)

April 19, 2007 / / 0 Comments

I’ve not really been a big fan of protest lately, walking in the streets to prove a point. But, the coverage of the high school walkout in Seattle yesterday made me think differently. Protest can be good, and for some reason, really good if you’re in high school.

High school students have no other choice than to be in school, so walking out of class is the supreme level of civil disobedience. Its a world of difference from middle aged protesters taking on the Iraq War on the weekend or college aged kids doing May Day.

For the rest of us, protest should be weighed more heavily against other types of engagement, like voting, participating in public life and running for office. Have I mentioned that if you protested either the Port of Olympia or Tacoma recently, you should run for port commission? Lots of openings!

I especially liked the response to unnamed critics in the PI’s article:

Students also fired back at cynics who suggest they’re just lazy kids looking for a day off from school. Those who skipped school Wednesday could have opted to go shopping downtown or simply could have gone home instead of attending the rally, Salas said.

The fact they showed up “is very demonstrative that these kids care,” she said. “Adults need to see we’re willing to get detention for the day and get yelled at by our parents to do this.”

This is the same world that hundreds of thousands of high school aged and younger keep American Idol afloat, and we’re worried about high school students actually paying attention and reacting to the world around them.

Its also nice to see a little bit of online organization (here and myspace), even if it did get only 300 protesters from a district with tens of thousands of students. I would like to know more about how online or non-traditional organizing tools were used, just because I’m curious.

One reason Goldy is wrong about the Sonics

April 6, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Goldy says:

Just this past November, no less an authority than the Times editorial board itself put its finger on the pulse of the region’s voters, and declared a new Sonics arena dead. No, Seattleites aren’t the only fish in the Sound, but nothing passes countywide with three-quarters of Seattle voters going against it.

But more than just being unrealistic, it is downright insulting for the Seattle Bothell Times and its Mercer Island based editors to now ask for a countywide vote to approve a tax on Seattle voters to pay for an arena that we have already so overwhelmingly rejected. Hell… why not make it a statewide vote? That way, the Times gets to hawk sports headlines during those dreary months between football and baseball, while the rest of the state gets the opportunity to once again screw Seattle. Everybody’s happy.

Back ten years ago when Paul Allen asked for $300 million for Qwest Field, King County voted overwhelmingly in favor of it, 275,000 to 213,000. It was the rural counties, like Lincoln (2,200 to 900) and Okanogan (6,500 to 3,000) that voted no.

The difference between last year’s Seattle initiative and this year’s possible King County initiative is that someone will be campaigning for the stadium.

Tacoma is not a world class city (elevate this)

March 9, 2007 / / 0 Comments

Still the silliest argument in all of the the viaduct arguments (which to me is the ultimate in Seattle centric navel gazing) is the world class city theme (whether it be here or here). We should do something because Seattle is “world class.” Well, whether Seattle is world class is open to argument, but to put that argument out, seems to point to other cities and say “not world class.”

Not in the world class: Tacoma and the I-705.

And, I’d like to point out again that when I first complained about this “word class” theme I was wrong to point to Portland, which of course made the right decision when they took down their own waterfront highway and rededicated the money to transit.

Would anyone make the silly argument that Tacoma is a world class city? Of course not, but that it isn’t has absolutely no bearing on whether I-705 was the right thing to do for Tacoma. 705 provides easy access from I-5 into downtown Tacoma, and up into the waterfront in the Stadium district, but at the same time it also cuts downtown Tacoma off from the waterfront. Its also noisy and not that pretty looking.

Whether a particular highway is built should not be based on what a city thinks of itself. On the other hand, one could argue that because Seattle has easy freight access from their waterfront is one reason why Seattle is “world class.”

“World class cities,” he said, implying Seattle, “don’t build concrete highways over their waterfronts”

February 16, 2007 / / 0 Comments

(or: Fred Moody, where are you when we need you most?)

Of course, some do build the wooden kind, but that’s beside the point.

This argument is the silliest of all the viaduct silliness because it implies that Seattle is a world class city. Or, that it won’t be a world class city until it tears down the viaduct, and maybe builds a tunnel. The point, though, is to tear down the viaduct.

For everyone who thinks this way, that Seattle needs to freshen itself up for its world class status, I suggest: Seattle and the Demons of Ambition: A Love Story.

Seattle, beware the devil on your shoulder.

It almost seems like we’re repeating some of the history that Moody writes about in “Demons of Ambition.” The football team is getting close, but not finishing the deal. Our basketball team is threatening to jump ship, and the city itself rejects them, but forces behind the scene are lining up in support.

And, the viaduct is seen as a wall that prevents the city from being “world class.” Now, that is something that has gotten the city into trouble before:

What had been envisioned as yet another showcase for Seattle as an emerging world-class city has turned into an epic disaster. The WTO convention was shut down, and Seattle was being exposed to the world as an overreaching dunce.

I wouldn’t compare the WTO directly with removing the viaduct, but I think they’re a symptom of the same disease.

And in regards to Andrew’s picture from the above post, I give you, FDR Drive in New York:

Interstate 5 in Portland OR, which probably isn’t very world class:

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