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An old school building that was purchased by a local church a few months ago is back on the market. I’m still piecing it together, but there seems to be a lot of misinformation about it in the public eye.

A blog post on Exit133.com (Rogers Elementary Back on the Market) and the comments that followed gave the impression that a church made a low-ball offer so they could flip the property. If it were true I probably would have applauded the church for their creative effort to bring in some income while helping the community. But that doesn’t seem to be the case. What they were trying to do was to move their church. Hardly the heinous things they’re being accused of doing.

There was enough in that blog post and a linked article to indicate to me that the issue was not the way it was portrayed. So I did the unthinkable. I called the church. Yes, that’s right. Instead of giving in to the usual hysteria about how Christians are trying to take over the world and control everyone and their uterus (if they have one), I decided to get the facts. It turns out that the church was neither trying to flip the property, nor where they opening a homeless shelter.
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The legislature wants to raise license tabs up to $240 per year, this time based on fuel economy instead of the value of the vehicle.

Let’s start by getting to the real reason for this legislation:

The proceeds of this tax must be used for the design, construction, and operations of transportation facilities and services that provide alternatives to the use of single-occupant vehicles and for programs that encourage the use of these facilities and services. The allowable uses of these revenues include but are not limited to transit, high-capacity transportation, bicycle and pedestrian facilities, and transportation demand management programs.

That’s right. A back-door funding mechanism for light rail and all of the other pet projects. This bill is basically a repeal of I-695. The total cost to consumers is a mere $6 billion dollars over the next 10 years.

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An article in the Seattle PI today (Did port contracts go to favorites?) brings up the question of whether there are more problems in the Port’s contracting activities. There are several revealing issues in the article but this one stands out:

During 2004, 87 percent of the port’s small electrical contracts worth nearly $3 million went to the same two firms, Prime Electric and SHJ Electric. State law encourages agencies to distribute work equally among contractors “whenever it would not violate the public interest.”

It appears that the Port is encouraged, but not required, to award 10% of it’s contracts to small businesses, some of which should go to woman and minority owned businesses. While I’m generally not in favor of any set-asides, they are a necessity in the world of government when it interacts with businesses. Simply put, it’s an effort to prevent corruption and monopolies.
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After having another experience with the left side of the Republican party in Washington state yesterday, there’s this piece (Conservatives Told they Must Throw Away Principles) on Newsbusters.org.

If conservatives mean to make their ideas and policies meaningful in the party again, there has to be some reason for the rest of the party to take them seriously. If conservatives are going to loudly proclaim their druthers yet meekly vote for apostates to those ideas anyway, not a single candidate will have any reason to expect that conservatives are serious with their ideas in the first place. Conservatives will become the boy who cried wolf. Winning is nice, but if there is no consequences for politicians who eschew conservative principles, eventually there won’t be any reason to even mouth conservative principles — even if only to ignore them later.

Someone in the comments said that conservatives lost the party in 2004. I think that statement is wrong. I believe that conservatives made a statement in 2006 that wasn’t heard. Many sat home and didn’t vote, not because of a few scandals, but because Bush and the Republican congress didn’t deliver on their promises from 2004.
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The Washington State Republican Party (WSRP) is divided. It has to be fixed, but until we find out who’s causing it and get them to stop, it will remain. The party leadership and their spokesmen blame conservatives (like me), while conservatives blame party leadership. Separate, neither group can accomplish anything politically in this state, as shown by elections over most of the last couple of decades.

Let me try to set the record straight about something that is repeatedly brought up when the issue is discussed. Party leadership tries to claim responsibility for the sweep in 1994 that lead to the party grabbing the majority in the State’s House and Senate, as well as placing several other Republicans in elected positions around the state.
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Are we willing to dump tons of toxic materials into landfills and into the air every year to prevent the sky from falling (anthropogenic global warming)? With the big push to switch to compact fluorescent replacement bulbs it wasn’t long before the obvious conflict would arise.

Every compact fluorescent bulb has about 5 milligrams of mercury in it. One problem is that they break, releasing mercury vapor into the air. Another is that while 5 milligrams is a small amount, when multiplied by the 300,000,000 that were sold last year in the US, that adds up to about 1.65 tons that will be introduced into the environment when those bulbs are thrown out. Most of that ends up in landfills, but some of it is burned in incinerators and released into the air.

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The Business Examiner Daily was gracious enough to quote me from an e-mail that I sent in response to one of their ‘Coffee Break’ questions. I hope they don’t mind me quoting them (quoting me):

The question was:

Officials from Port of Olympia and Port of Tacoma face a sticky situation with regard to the proposed logistics center that would serve as a distribution center for both operations, create jobs and streamline the flow of cargo through South Sound waterfronts. Some have called for a public vote.

The Business Examiner would like to know your thoughts on the rise of trade-related industries in the South Sound and how the good of the region might mean bad news for a few neighboring the site.

My response:
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My mom is a woman who knows no guile. She is the most honest, sincere and forthright person I’ve ever known. Those same traits have earned her the respect of those around her. At the VA hospital where she worked until she retired she earned the nickname ‘E. F. Hutton’, because ‘when E. F. Hutton speaks, people listen’. She was known throughout the hospital as the person to transfer a phone call to if a veteran was getting the runaround. They knew she’d fix it, even though she wasn’t an administrator.

One example of how she earned her nickname was the time her supervisor, rumored to be something of back-stabbing career-climber, dumped some work on my mom that was intended to make the supervisor look good to her superiors. When my mom objected her supervisor said, ‘oh well, [defecation] rolls down hill’. To that my mom responded, ‘yeah, but it also floats to the top’.
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Last Saturday I was elected as a delegate to the Pierce County Republican Convention. It’s not a major accomplishment since there were two openings and only two of us wanted to go.

I’m really doing it so that I can understand the whole process in this state, and get to know the players better. That has been eye-opening. More on that later.

But it meant that I finally had to officially join the Republican party in Washington state. Up until now I just couldn’t get myself to hand over any money knowing that some of it would go to candidates I didn’t approve of.

When I was in the county HQ I read the results of a straw poll from back in September (2007) taken at the party’s booth at the Puyallup Fair. The results were amazing to me.
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“I just don’t buy the argument that it’s going to stifle appropriate discussions,” [Rick] Talbert said. “It may stifle inappropriate discussions” (regarding a bill before the state legislature requiring governments in the state to make a record of closed-door meetings.)

Jason Hagey of the News Tribune writes (in Baarsma and Tacoma City council debate state bill requiring taping of meetings) of the revealing misadventures:

Mayor Bill Baarsma was particularly outspoken, peppering the meeting with comments in between the speeches and questioning of council members. At various points, Baarsma feigned surprise when the council was told the bill would not apply to caucus meetings of state legislators. He offered his opinion that no member of the city’s law enforcement and firefighter retirement board – which frequently discusses medical issues – would ever meet in executive session if a meeting were being recorded.

As the discussion wound down, and as Baarsma continued with his stream of commentary, Talbert referred to the mayor’s “continual editorial comments.”

“It’s my right,” Baarsma said.

“Your right?” Talbert answered, his face reddening.

“First Amendment,” Baarsma said. “First Amendment.”

And then Baarsma slammed his gavel and declared Talbert out of order.

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