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Dino Rossi, once again running against Queen Christine to take back the election that he won in ‘04, has unveiled his transportation plan for Washington state.

Funding for the plan comes from several sources:

• Less than half of revenue from vehicle sales taxes [goes to funding roads] ($7.7 billion)
• Stop charging state sales tax on transportation projects ($2.4 billion)
• Half of the current and future eastside subarea equity Sound Transit surplus ($690 million)
• Reasonable tolling ($ ?)

The plan:

• Congestion relief - nine projects given the highest priority (other than safety, stated in a video)
• Other Transportation Initiatives - Alaskan Way Viaduct, our state ferry system, and addressing the funding gap for projects statewide
• Green Initiatives - promotes the use of hybrid and plug-in electric vehicles, and provides funding to repair salmon blocking culverts owned by the WSDOT
• Transit - Transit has always been planned, and managed, at the local level. The state should not meddle in local transit decisions.

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Finally, an objective review of rail’s ability to deliver on its promises.

Conclusion:

There may be places in the world where rail transit works. There may be reasons to build it somewhere in the United States. But saving energy and reducing greenhouse gas emissions are not among those reasons. Regions and states that want to be green should find cost-effective alternatives such as the ones described here. [emphasis added]

The CATO Institute’s report, Does Rail Transit Save Energy or Reduce Greenhouse Gas Emissions?, released yesterday, has some less than flattering things to say about rail transit systems in the U.S.
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It’s a good way to show appreciation for what these soldiers have sacrificed. It’s a small gesture, but I’m sure it will be appreciated. They’re accepting donations at the Lakewood City Hall.
TNT has details: Lakewood seeks donations for returning Fort Lewis Stryker soldiers

As a Christian minister I am keenly aware of just how important these soldiers are in my own freedom of religion and freedom of speech as they fight radical Islamics. In case you aren’t aware, one of the tenets of Islam is dhimmitude, the Islamic policy of dealing with infidels (other religions). They are instructed to either, a) convert us to Islam, b) oppress us so that we can’t spread our religion, or c) kill us. They’ve shown their desire to come onto our soil and kill Americans, so there’s little doubt that they are a direct threat to my personal freedoms here in this country.

But thanks to our military, these soldiers included, and our constitution I am free to practice my religion, to invite others to join me and to talk about it here.

Update: Just one example of what life is like for Christians living under dhimmitude:

Compass Direct News: Claim of ‘blasphemy’ in city market leads to looting, destruction.

Nnamdi Ike, a Christian who witnessed the disturbances, told Compass in Kano that Muslim claims that a Christian painted an inscription insulting Muhammad were false.
“Christians have always been attacked on false claims of blasphemy,” Ike said. “No Christian wrote anything against Muhammad or Islam. It is all a lie. They just made this up to find a reason to attack us.”

h/t Jihad Watch

In an opinion piece in USA Today the writer blames the Republican Party’s association with conservative Christians (one of the main reasons) for the GOP losing young voters. And, of course, liberal Republicans buy the lie.

It’s beginning to sound like a broken record. Oh, I’m sorry, the ‘youth’ won’t know what a record is.

Remember that this is an opinion piece, not a study or a survey. And it’s posted on a liberal, dead-tree rag’s Web site as they try to reach a younger crowd that never had ink-stained fingers from trying to understand the world around them.

What are the other reasons given in the piece?

Young people react to the success or failure of the first politicians they know. The twentysomethings of the 1980s, for example, associated the Democratic Party with the malaise of Jimmy Carter — and the GOP with the triumphs of Ronald Reagan.

Apparently, the writer thinks that ‘young people’ are too stupid to think for themselves. They’re just dumb animals with limited higher brain functions. All they can do is follow their first emotional reaction.
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In January of 2007, the Tacoma City Council redrew the boundaries of what they refer to as ‘downtown’. But the new boundaries don’t make sense to me.

Map of area designated as ‘downtown’ for the purposes of the Angelou study

Here’s a link to the City of Tacoma Web site from January 5, 2007 which says that the area changed:

City Council defines downtown footprint
The Tacoma City Council recently defined the footprint of downtown Tacoma and designated the following principles for planning future growth: Protect neighborhoods, critical areas, the Port of Tacoma, industrial, and manufacturing uses, and increase densities in the downtown and neighborhood business districts.

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A summary of the reasons that I think Tacoma’s offer to Russell is bad for the city:

• It’s too expensive - Keeping one company in town for $140 million ($65 million of which has to come from a city struggling to rebuild its downtown) is just too much to pay.
• There was no apparent consideration of alternatives - That money could be used to attract a number of smaller businesses to downtown Tacoma.
• It was poorly negotiated - Public showmanship is not how you negotiate this type of deal when your competitors are keeping quiet.
• It appears to be politically motivated - None of the current city council members want to be the next Gary Locke.
• Building a financial district around Russell has already failed - There’s nothing to indicate that this deal can change it. Tacoma’s problems are systemic and need a systemic solution, not a flowery trim and better drainage in this imaginary ‘International Financial Services Area’ (IFSA).
• The decision was made while consultants were still gathering data that would be used to help determine if it was the best course of action (that is, assuming there was ever any question in their minds when they hired the consultants).
• The deal came from a policy that wasn’t discussed openly by the city council, nor was there a public vote of a quorum of council members. According to this thread at a TNT blog, there was only a ‘tacit approval’ by city council members, whatever that means in this situation.
• The deal depends on some money that is set aside for an Empowerment Zone, but will be used in an area that is being set aside for wealthy financial services companies (the IFSA).
• The financial district pipe-dream is probably responsible for the rejection (or hindering) of numerous viable companies that might have moved in downtown. I think it’s time for its proponents wake up from that dream and smell the coffee roasting (if they allow roasting in Tacoma).
• There’s no guarantee that all Russell employees will choose to relocate to be nearer to a Seattle or Federal Way Russell headquarters. Employees who choose to stay and commute to the new HQ would keep their personal portion of their ‘economic impact’ where it currently is, in Tacoma and environs.
• The B&O portion of Russell’s economic impact, as I understand it, is under $10 million, yet the city will spend many times that to keep them here.
• The deal includes a targeted tax cut for Russell for the city’s B&O which is being justified by saying, ‘if they leave we’ll lose it anyway’. But that doesn’t change the fact that it’s nothing more than corporate welfare. The city should consider a broader cut or even a repeal of that tax to help bolster smaller businesses, including those who relocate downtown.
• Russell’s desire to relocate isn’t a big surprise. They’ve considered it at least once before (in the 90’s) and they have already revised their leases to expire in the same year. Even this huge deal might be too little, too late.
• Most anyone who is honest about it will admit that Russell and Tacoma are not exactly a good match (for Russell). There are many other companies that are a good fit with Tacoma that could use a boost from the sources cobbled together into this Russell deal.
• I think that it’s time for Tacoma to rethink its goals for downtown. I believe that the current plan has become more of a problem than it’s worth. Maybe some of the people who won’t let go of it need to step aside, or be voted aside, so that something new and viable can come together in our city.

My personal opinion is that this offer should be withdrawn and revised to exclude the IFSA and the goal of building a financial district downtown. It should be done in such a way that it doesn’t damage the Haub or Ilahie proposals.

Keeping Russell here is a good idea as long as the price isn’t too high and the offer to keep them here is above-board in all aspects, including the motivation behind it.  This offer doesn’t even pass the smell test.

Feel free to check back.  I might think of some more reasons.

I just got back from the presentation by a consulting firms hired by the city of Tacoma to (supposedly) help them figure out what to do about the floundering downtown area. I was encouraged by a few things, discouraged by some others and I can still smell Freighthouse Square on my clothes.

There were two basic parts to the discussion: Survey results and economic impacts. Both were on slide shows and the economic impact portion had a flier at the door. Oh, and there were some average grits for snackin’.

Here’s my bullet points.

On the upside:
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A TNT article reveals details about the meeting between the ‘Tacoma Partnership’ and Russell consultants regarding their potential move in five years. The title of the article is telling,”Will Russell catch Tacoma’s Hail Mary pass?”

The first thing I noticed in the article is that the writer, Dan Voelpel, is probably shilling for the local politicians, comparing them to the heroes of an old western movie:

This Magnificent Seven, led by U.S. Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Belfair, represented a new affiliation that calls itself the Tacoma Partnership. They arrived early on this crisp morning for a 9 a.m. meeting.

The Magnificent Seven of the 1960 motion picture of the same name came together as underdog gunslingers aiming to save a poor Mexican farming village from 100 banditos who wanted to steal its food stocks.

Aside for the blatent butt-kissing by the writer, I think he tried to reverse the roles. He’s putting Russell and their consultants in the role of the banditos and making these politicians the heroes. But Russell isn’t robbing anyone. They have a business decision to make.

In my view, it’s the politicians who are stealing from the poor farming village by using our tax dollars, to the tune of $140 million or more (not all coming from local taxes), to fulfill their pie-in-the-sky pipe-dream of an ‘International Financial Services Area’ (IFSA) in downtown Tacoma.

Now the part that gave me a chuckle:
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Evergreen College has a long history of promoting protests as part of their liberal indoctrination programs (they call them ‘classes’). Over time that pesky law of unintended consequences has brought the chickens home to roost.
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As usual, the Tacoma News Tribune comes out on the side of tax and spend politicians in University Place with this headline: City cuts traffic fees, but developers still complain.

Toward the bottom of the article the writer states the real issue:

The city continues to struggle to get its Town Center project up and running.

The background:
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