Those BIAW Billboards: An Eastern Washington Perspective

KXLY reported last week that the Building Industry Association of Washington paid to have 61 billboards reading "Don't Let Seattle Steal This Election" put up all over Eastern Washington. Unfortunately, I have seen none up around Whitman County.

These billboards have been officially denounced by the Rossi campaign. But the intent of the BIAW is clear. Turnout in Eastern Washington could have made a difference in the 2004 election that was decided by 129 votes. Many voters on this side of the state stayed home because they felt Rossi didn't have a chance. The BIAW is trying to motivate people to vote this year by reminding them of what happened last time. Predictably, west side pundits are wringing their hands over this. Joel Connelly of the Seattle-PI wrote in a column earlier this week:

The "Cascade Curtain" is, at times, a frustrating fact of life for folks from Oroville to Asotin.

Washington went nearly a decade without a statewide officeholder from Eastern Washington. The drought was broken last December as Gregoire named Spokane-based Judge Debra Stevens to the state Supreme Court.

Our last governor from Eastern Washington, Clarence D. Martin, left office in 1941. We haven't had a U.S. senator from east of the Cascades since C.C. Dill, "Father of Grand Coulee Dam," left office more than 70 years ago.

Yet, the "Cascade Curtain" has shown holes of late, doubtless to the anger of demagogues and dividers.

Initiative 912, a bid to roll back the state's gas tax increase, was defeated in 2005, with Whitman and Walla Walla counties joining the "Wet Side" of the mountains in voting for transportation.

Huh? Connelly had a pretty good list of our greivances going until he mentioned I-912. Two counties, with strong Democratic contingents, voting to reject I-912 is no "hole in the curtain" (but it should be a lesson to Whitman County voters that we empower liberal Seattleites by voting against initiatives like I-912 and I-933.) In fact, I-912 is a perfect demonstration of our frustration with one-party Seattle rule. In 2005, the public was scared into voting against I-912 , the initiative to repeal the 9 1/2 cent gas tax hike, by images of Hurricane Katrina and the 1989 Loma Prieto earthquake intermingled with the Alaskan Way Viaduct in Seattle. Three years later, after internecine squabbling between the Democratic governor and the Democratic mayor of Seattle, nothing has been done to fix the Viaduct and no plan for doing so has been put forth. And there is still no word on what the $1.6 billion earmarked from the "emergency" gas tax increase to replace the viaduct is going to be spent on.

The Queen showing up for a press conference in Spokane to declare a state of emergency because of the wildfires there and say we are "one Washington" does not bridge the "Cascade Curtain" either.

The greivances we have in Eastern Washington go far beyond the 2004 election. That is just the most well-publicized example of Seattle getting its way, no matter what, and thus a simple and politically expedient way to coalesce the many issues swirling around.

Here's a perfect example. The Queen's campaign called a press conference last week to denounce the billboards and trotted out the President of the Washington State Labor Council, the executive director of the Washington Conservation Voters, and the communications director for NARAL Pro-Choice Washington.

Are you kidding me? The three special interest groups (big labor, tree huggers, and abortion activists) that probably most offend conservative Eastern Washingtonians the most? This is her "One Washington" strategy?

The biggest greivance we have in Eastern Washington against the Queen at the moment is the certainty that she is completely in bed with radical environmentalists to ensure their continued finanical support and to avoid offending the King County granola vote. For instance:

The Queen's handling of the Areva deal that cost the Tri-Cities thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue.

The Department of Ecology's new stormwater mandates that threaten to drive future SEL expansion out of Pullman and costing thousands of jobs and millions of dollars in revenue

Proposals by the Democratically-controlled legislature to heavily tax our vehicles and stifle growth in the name of fighting "global warming."

The ill-fated "Yukon to Yellowstone" legislation that would have amounted to a huge Eastern Washington land grab by environmentalists.

Joel Connelly wondered if the BIAW's campaign to "pour salt into old social wounds" will succeed.

I'll let State Senator Mark Schoesler answer that, in comments he made in the Lewiston Tribune back on February 14, 2008:

Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, often has to hear west-side legislators preach about what eastern Washingtonians need. This session is no different.

A bill to promote the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in eastern Washington passed through the Senate Wednesday, though it received almost no support from eastern senators, Schoesler said.

"It concerns me that Seattle senators say they know what's best for eastern Washington," Schoesler said.

It's time for a change. It's time to re-elect Dino Rossi as Governor of Washington.

Say What?

Jana (Lien, formerly of Pullman, now living on the west side and working for Amazon.com,) once compared Pullman to "Pottersville" of "It's a Wonderful Life" fame. She posted the following comment today on Dnews.com about the recent Wal-Mart poll:

If you didn't notice, the recent daily news poll let anyone vote more than once. You could sit there all day and skew the numbers, if you wanted. It's not a valid tool for supporting your case.

Really? I wonder if Jana noted that the PARD petition let anyone sign it more than once, particularly if they used more than one name, and allowed people from as far away as Australia sign? That was convenient for PARD, as real petitions require that the signer be a registered voter in the locality or state involved so that the signature can be verified. For all we know, PARD members sat around and filled in the names.

So does Jana consider the PARD petition a "valid tool" for supporting their case? I'll bet she does, as she sent in a letter to the editor blasting Wal-Mart and has a link to PARD's website on her blog.

Power to the people. Right, except when your ox is being gored.

Technorati Tags: wal-mart walmart

Eastern Washington and the Queen: Myth and Reality

MYTH:

As the members of the [Eastern Washington Advisory] council and I discussed today, it is vitally important to Washington that the unique issues facing central and eastern Washington be addressed through state government.

- Queen Christine, press release, November 16, 2007

REALITY:

But rather than champion a project she feared would be controversial in some environmental circles, Gregoire deployed a "balanced approach" of not publicly promoting or opposing the project.

Gregoire repeatedly was invited by Areva supporters and her staff to consider an agreement with the company to restrict in-state storage of the plant's low-level waste of depleted uranium.

But that wasn't enough assurance for her to woo the company personally - as backers had hoped.

And while Areva, through the Tri-City Development Council, repeatedly sought Gregoire's personal engagement, the governor's office offered "a professional approach, not a political approach" that minimized her involvement.

The governor's office also refused to believe intelligence indicating the plant could be Washington's if Gregoire would embrace it.

[snip]

Gregoire's unwillingness to play a more active role in recruiting what would have been a major economic development score for the state, Eastern Washington and the Tri-Cities has left even some of her strongest supporters shaken.

- "Herald investigates: How Washington lost the $2 billion Areva plant and at least 400 jobs to Idaho, Tri-City Herald, June 29, 2008

Tri-Cities residents are worried, justifiably, that the loss of this plant will cost more jobs. Herald political reporter Chris Mulick has more on his blog (a regular stop of mine.)

That's right, in an election year, the Queen ignored the needs of Eastern Washington to kow-tow to the radical Seattle environmentalists clad in birkenstocks and frayed "No Nukes" t-shirts. Is there any chance we'll get our stormwater burden lifted with her in office? Only with Dino Rossi as governor do we have a chance of that.

Obama may not have known where Hanford was, but the Queen won't be able to forget.

Growth Management, Isn't

The Growth Management Act was adopted in 1990 because Democrats in the Washington Legislature "found that uncoordinated and unplanned growth posed a threat to the environment, sustainable economic development, and the quality of life in Washington."

As with all pie-in-the-sky social engineering projects liberals adopt, such as telling people where to live, where to shop, what to eat and drink, how much to drive, etc., etc., the GMA has been an unqualified disaster.

In a story Wednesday, the Seattle Times reported that:

In just over three years, Seattle already is halfway to reaching its targeted housing growth for 20 years.

And a few sections of town — Ballard, Eastlake, the Central Area, Greenlake, Lower Queen Anne and downtown — already have exceeded their 20-year targets.

Not surprising really. The Growth Management Act forced densification of core areas by prohibiting development outside "urban growth boundaries." So instead of living in suburbs, as has been the pattern since WWII, people are jamming into Seattle area condos and apartments as fast as developers can build them.

Even stubborn refusal by the Democrats in Olympia to address congestion problems that have resulted in Seattle having the 9th worst traffic in the U.S. has not slowed growth, as prayed for by the treehuggers.

The Growth Management Act should actually have been called the Real Estate Broker and Developers Enrichment Act. Land use regulations, concluded a recent University of Washington study, have added $200,000 to the cost of an average Seattle home. In fact, according to the Washington Center for Real Estate Research, housing prices have appreciated significantly statewide since the passage of the GMA. Affordable housing for young families is scarce and growing scarcer.

Silly leftists, Trix are for kids. The Law of Unintended Consequences is immutable. People are like water. They are inexorable, constantly defy expectations, and always find the path of least resistance. God Himself gave us free will. If He cannot control what we choose to do, how can inept bureaucrats in Olympia hope to do so?

TRUE urban planning would account for human choice and behavior and not be based on idealistic and starry-eyed politicans and activists with no knowledge of the real world.

Quote of the Day

Our region should declare its independence...We are held back because our state and federal government still believe our economies are driven by wheat farms and timber logging

- Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels stating his belief that the Puget Sound should secede from Washington State.

I think it's a hell of an idea. Is there a petition I can sign?

Dino Rossi Announces Transportation Plan

I lived in the Washington, DC area from 1985-1997. I experienced some of the worst commutes to work you can imagine.

I lived in the Seattle area from 1997-1999 and experienced equally bad, if not worse commutes (second worst congestion in the country in 1999.)

Here's the difference. When I went back to the DC area in 2005, I-95 and I-395 in Virginia had been dramatically expanded. New lanes, bridges, interchanges, overpasses, etc., had been added. I hardly recognized the roads I used to drive every day. Traffic is still horrible (fourth worst in the U.S. in 2005 according to the Texas Transportation Institute), but how bad would it be had they done nothing?

Meanwhile, virtually nothing has been done to improve SR 167 and I-405 in King County in the 12 years I have lived in Washington, despite rapid population growth.

As I said on the radio yesterday, like Ronald Reagan, I did not leave the Democratic Party, it left me. The Democrats used to be the party of the working man. The Democrats used to be the party of job- and business-creating public works projects, such as dams and bridges, that increased our quality of life and invested in the future. That is no longer the case, particularly in Washington. The Washington Democratic Party may as well be the Green Party. The interests of fish, trees, and snooty latte liberals have come before the interests of the working class.

What could be more important to working people than affordable housing? Yet the Growth Management Act, foisted on us by the Democrats, has made housing unaffordable statewide, particularly in the Puget Sound area. So if you can't afford to live close to work, then you have to commute. Again, the Democratic intransigence to do anything with the road system in the Puget Sound area has forced working people to spend more hours every day in their cars instead of with their families.

Why? Because the attitude is that if we build more roads, then more people will move to Washington. The Greens Democrats want to pull up the drawbridge and seal Washington off from the rest of the world to stop that evil "urban sprawl" (a myth, by the way) and force people into more environmentally-correct public transportation (even though cars stuck in traffic burn more gas and emit more pollution,) which is not practical for most working families. And that's okay with the elitist NIMBYists who want to keep their view of the Olympics uncluttered by tract housing.

The theory didn't pan out, however. Washington has continued to grow rapidly, despite the poor transportation infrastructure, and now the chickens have come home to roost. It's been nearly 20 years since the Nimitz Freeway collapse in Oakland and the Alaskan Way Viaduct still poses a serious risk of killing thousands. The 520 floating bridge likewise could sink in a strong windstorm, possibly killing hundreds. Needed replacement ferries are still on the drawing board. Boeing moved it's headquarters to Chicago. How many more businesses will move out of Washington because of long commmute times and a do-nothing government? We are in gridlock, literally and figuratively. And it affects us in Eastern Washington, because when the Puget Sound catches a cold, we get the flu. Tax dollars that should be going to our transportation needs end up on the west side instead. Remember the 9.5 cent gas tax hike that was supposed to fix all these problems? Yeah....

Rossi's ambitious plan, among other things, calls for the state to spend $15 billion (without raising gas taxes) on a tunnel to replace the Viaduct, widening I-405 from Renton to Bellevue (the road I used to drive every day), and replacing the 520 floating bridge with an eight-lane bridge. This is bold leadership. This is what government is supposed to be about. Come November, Washington voters are going to see the clear differences between Dino Rossi and Chris "Status Quo" Gregoire.

"Seattle's a greedy, jealous, lustful bunch, says Forbes"

Not me. The magazine. Although I don't find it much of surprise. I mean, this is the city where a recent UW study found that land-use regulations added $200,000 to the price of a home, because "people with higher incomes want the kind of amenities that regulation provides," i.e. keeping out the unsightly underclass.

Also not surprising considering that the American Religious Identification Survey 2001 (ARIS), found that 25% of people in Washington say they have no religion at all, or call themselves atheist, agnostic or secular; the highest in the country. And the number of Washingtonians who said they attend church or synagogue once a week or almost every week according to a 2006 Gallup poll was only 32%, well below the national average of 42%. That ranks Washington 45th out of the 50 states and the District of Columbia in church attendance.

Seattle Democrat: College Students Have Incomplete Brain Development

I wonder how many WSU students caught this in the Evergreen today:

Sen. Ed Murray, D - Seattle, the main proponent for SB 6841 [an act that would restrict possession of firearms at institutions of higher education - tf], argued that studies showing incomplete brain development until late teens or early 20s mean “many students do not have the ability to make judgements about guns.” Schoesler [our Republican senator - tf] disagreed, describing university students as having “the best and brightest minds,” and being capable of making good judgments.

Ironically, the majority of our young men and women in the armed forces who are making "judgements about guns" in Iraq and Afghanistan every day are in their late teens or early 20s. But what would a Seattle Democrat know about that?

That's right, students. The Rats think you're just kids, but go ahead and keep voting for the buffoons anyway.

"Legislator weary of west-side ideas; Mark Schoesler says Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative is latest example of the problem"

It concerns me that Seattle senators say they know what's best for eastern Washington.

- State Senator Mark Schoesler

AMEN, Mark! A man that eloquent has to be reelected.

Senator Schoesler is our voice of reason in Olympia. I'm so glad my daughter is paging for him this week and gets to see that common sense in action.

From today's Lewiston Tribune:

OLYMPIA - Sen. Mark Schoesler, R-Ritzville, often has to hear west-side legislators preach about what eastern Washingtonians need. This session is no different.

A bill to promote the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative in eastern Washington passed through the Senate Wednesday, though it received almost no support from eastern senators, Schoesler said.

"It concerns me that Seattle senators say they know what's best for eastern Washington," Schoesler said.

The bill would mandate that the Department of Fish and Wildlife work with other ecology groups on Yellowstone to Yukon conservation projects. Though the department would work inside or near Washington's borders, Yellowstone to Yukon project areas span 1,990 miles from Peel River in the northern Yukon to Riverton, Wyo.

Bill sponsor Sen. Ken Jacobsen, D-Seattle, said the legislation would also dub Spokane the nation's capital for the Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Initiative.

Despite their distance from Spokane, Jacobsen was approached by Seattle residents passionate about Yellowstone to Yukon preservation projects. Schoesler, on the other hand, said no east side groups have an interest in the organization.

"Not a single person from my district has approached me about this," Schoesler said. "I'm in regular contact with sportsmen and landowners and this isn't even within their radius of interest."

Schoesler, along with other bill opponents expressed concern the bill would encourage Yellowstone to Yukon workers to tear down roads in eastern Washington in the name of wildlife preservation.

Yellowstone to Yukon Conservation Director Sean Britt stressed such action was only taken after ecology workers researched the area and made agreements with the community.

"We wouldn't be against decommissioning a road, but our practice uses working science," Britt said. "We're not about creating one big park or taking out the human species. We're more interested to work and promote coexistence with humans and other species." ["Human species?" Like the animals are equal to us. Unbelievable. - tf]

Britt said Yukon to Yellowstone once helped a fishing outfitter in Island Park, who complained of bears invading his trash cans. The outfitter was supplied with grant money to purchase bear-proof waste bins, so he and his furry neighbors could coexist. The solution harmed neither the bear nor the outfitter.

Terry Gray, president of the Palouse Audubon Society said though he didn't know of the Yukon to Yellowstone program, any conservation projects would greatly help the Palouse, which suffers from clear-cutting and overdevelopment. [The Palouse suffers from "clear-cutting and overdevelopment?" He's joking, right? - tf]

As a part of the conservation area, the Palouse and its dwindling numbers of birds, from the evening grosbeak and grasshopper sparrow, could benefit from the bill. [Hmmmmm. There is no "dwindling number of birds" at the Port of Whitman County Industrial Park where I work. There are Swainson's Hawks, Black-billed Magpies, Red-winged Blackbirds, Ring-necked Pheasants, and California Quail in great abundance - tf]