5views.com

Russell Investments has finally made their decision regarding the location of their headquarters.  They’re moving to Seattle.  You should see the look of surprise on my face.

But will this be the end of the downtown pipe-dream now that the ‘Financial Services’ pipe-dream is gone for good? Will the next mayor and city council drop the idea of a glorious downtown while it and the rest of the city’s infrastructure fall into decay? Will they finally use the money we give them to fix the potholes that keep showing up?

I doubt it.  There’s no limit to the stupidity of politicians and bureaucrats.  Wasn’t it Einstein who defined insanity as ‘doing the same thing over and over expecting different results’?
(more…)

What a wonderful change of pace.  I’ve been to a lot of forums in downtown Tacoma but so far none have been like this one.

State Senator Randi Becker and County Auditor Jan Shabro were guest speakers at a Town Hall meeting hosted by the Pierce County Republican Party (PCRP).  Bob Lawrence, PCRP Chair, moderated the event.

The speakers were given time to address issues that were important to them and we heard a lot of good information from both.  Afterward came the Question and Answer portion with great questions and suggestions from the audience.

What set this event apart from others that I’ve attended is that I came away feeling like someone in government is listening. That’s something that conservatives like me seldom experience in this part of the state.
(more…)

King country seems to be putting pressure on Key Bank over one of their customers’ labor dispute.  I’m not surprised that a union would resort to treachery and heavy handedness.  I am surprised that a county government would act as union thugs in a labor dispute.

The Business Examiner Daily reports “Trucking labor dispute ropes in bank“.  The simple explanation is that King County government seems to be trying to put pressure on Key Bank to, in turn, put pressure on Oak Harbor Freight to cave to the union’s demands.

We saw the same thing a few months ago in Illinois when a union pressured a bank first to make risky loans to a failing business and then, when that didn’t work,  to make risky loans to former employees of that unionized business that was forced to close.  It wasn’t the bank’s fault that they closed.  In fact, it was probably party the union’s fault. The business had been unionized just a few years earlier and that fact probably contributed to the company’s inability to remain competitive in the slowing housing market that it supplied.

I think unions have out-lived their usefulness in this country.  There was a time when businesses were out of control and abusing employees because of greed.  Since that time laws have been changed to protect workers.  Unions no longer fill that role in society.
(more…)

For capitalism to succeed, individual businesses must be allowed to fail.  Just as in nature the weak must give way so that others may survive, a failing business that is consuming resources must cease to exist as a body so that others may be fed by it’s remains and by the resources it would have consumed.  Sound brutal?  It’s life, and it’s capitalism.  And socialism is no alternative.

As I listen to the supposed outrage at bonuses paid to AIG executives, I wonder about the whole story.  The fact is AIG as we know it should have failed and died out or been replaced with a new business model.  Had that happened there would have been no bonuses.  There would have been other problems as well, but would those problems be worse than what we and the next generation will have to deal with?

There was a local financial failure last September that resulted in the weak being devoured by the strong.  JP Morgan (Chase) purchased assets and some liabilities from WaMu when it was in receivership.  That move was capitalism at it’s finest.  Chase grew and their stock went up.  WaMu’s depositors kept their money and many (not all) of their employees kept their jobs.  And that was before the $700B (i.e. $380B) Wall Street bailout.

“We’re in favour of what the government is doing, but we’re not relying on what the government is doing. We would’ve done it anyway,” said Jamie Dimon, JPMorgan’s chief executive.

Under socialism it’s the chosen that survive.  Some may be weak but under socialism they are protected or made stronger by a powerful government which no one can argue against.  So like the genetically flawed animal that is allowed to propagate in captivity when it would have died out in the wild, weak business models in weak markets are propped up and propagated in the economic captivity of socialism.  But who’s paying for the zoo?  The taxpayer, of course.
(more…)

For those of you who refuse to question popular theories of anthropogenic (man-made) global warming, maybe you should reconsider.  I’m not asking anyone to accept my view without question, I’m asking you to question both sides of the issue.  If you’re a liberal who claims to be open-minded that should be no problem for you.

I’m certainly not the only one questioning the issue, nor are conservatives the only ones.  It seems that top scientists in Japan are questioning the man-made aspect of global warming.  They question the data used to come to those conclusions and they challenge the climate modeling theories that global warming alarmism is based on.

I’m not used to seeing snow on the ground in mid-March in Tacoma.  All across the country record low temperatures have been set this year.  How is that consistent with the idea of man-made global warming?  Have we solved the problem and this is the result? And if we’ve solved it then we can stop spending tax dollars on it, right?
(more…)

Now that Barry has been in office for 53 days, let’s look at his track record.

Don Surber has a list of 52 mistakes that Barry made in his first 52 days in office.  Oh, and don’t forget Day 53. (h/t MichelleMalkin.com)

It’s funny, too, that during the campaign I frequently asked Barry supporters the question, “what qualifies him to be President.”  No one could ever answer it.  The closest they came was, “he’ll surround himself with good people.”  My response of course was to explain that even after he got that ‘good advice’ from those ‘good people’, he still had to make the decisions himself.

But has anyone noticed how many problems those ‘good people’ have?  Problems that make them drop out of the nomination process.  Problems that would normally disqualify someone for a job.  Like a tax cheat that’s running the Treasury (and the IRS).  Good people, my foot.

So far, not so good.  A recent poll says that almost 3/4 of Americans think that the stimulus package won’t work.

And for the whiners who are going to ask why I’ve fed this to FeedTacoma, I’ll just point out that 181,824 people voted for Barry in Pierce county.  And when your children and grandchildren start asking why they pay so much in taxes, you can refer back to this and explain it.  You voted for an bumbling idiot.

I was troubled by a post on the TNT blog recently that talked about ACORN members showing up at a city council meeting in Tacoma and asking for government support and funding for their agenda.

ACORN members spoke during Citizen’s Forum, a once-per-month chance for citizens to address council members about items that are not part of the meeting agenda. Others in the group sat in the council chambers, and all of them wore red.

ACORN spokesman Mike Swenson said the group made a conscious decision not to appear militant.

I wonder how long their restraint will last considering ACORN’s efforts in other cities.

Here’s what happened in a Los Angeles school board meeting:

The members of ACORN and United Teachers Los Angeles — all wearing bright red shirts — entered the Los Angeles Unified School District Board of Education meeting on Tuesday afternoon, sat down and began chanting.

Police said the protesters were staging an illegal occupation of a public building. The district said no arrests would occur as long as members of media were in building.

UTLA President A.J. Duffy approached the speakers’ lectern and told the board, “You know why we’re here. You know I’m not leaving this rostrum. You know I’m going to keep talking.

(more…)

The Public Disclosure Commission, responsible for investigating violations of the state’s campaign laws, has dismissed a claim that Bruce Dammeier (R-Puyallup) had violated ‘in-kind’ disclosure laws.  The problem is that it wasted tax dollars to investigate this unsubstantiated claim and probably confused some voters needlessly.  As usual, it appears to be nothing more than dirty politics.

It always amazes me that it’s Democrats who usually make these false claims which never stick, while at the same time they dismiss substantiated allegations.  Want some examples?
(more…)

It’s the only name that seems to fit.  I’ve heard it called the ’swindulus’ package, the ‘porkulus’ package and the ’spendulus’ package.  No matter what you call it, it’s a bad idea.  And now you too can protest this irresponsible legislation.

Monday (tomorrow) on President’s Day in Seattle there will be a protest against the Friday the 13th Spending Bill (that’s the day it was in conference and reached its final form.) a.k.a. the “Obama Stimulus Package” (written by Nancy Pelosi and friends.)

Here’s the announcement:

IT’S ON!! PRESIDENT’S DAY PROTEST AT WESTLAKE PARK IN SEATTLE!

The protest against the porkulus is on for President’s Day!

Date: Monday, February 16th
Time: 12:00 p.m. to 3:00 p.m.
Where: Westlake Park in downtown Seattle, 401 Pine St., in the open area by the big arch.

The idea is to use what we’ve learned about dissent over the last eight years. We need loud protests with lots noise and visuals. So, what should you bring?

Bring AS MANY PEOPLE AS YOU CAN! Bring your families, your friends, neighbors, bring everyone!

Bring SIGNS!! Get those craft making juices flowing and make signs and banners and pictures and paintings. Just imagine that you are a left-wing college student with nothing else to do and that should help you get started!

Bring something to sit on and appropriate clothing.

Most importantly, JUST BRING IT!!!

More info (PROTEST UPDATE -NEW!):

Great news! Steve Beren, the man who tried to take on radical lefty Jim McDermott, will be a speaker at the protest rally! I am in the process of trying to find more speakers, including economists from the list of those that signed that letter published by the Cato Institute.

Let’s see what happens!!

Stay tuned…

NEW UPDATE:

1. I will be on KIRO News tonight on the 5:00 news talking about our protest.
2. The speakers will start around 12:30pm to accommodate those people who can only come during their lunch hour, so get there earlier rather than later!

Stay tuned for more!!

Another post from Liberty Belle:

More Reasons to Attend the Protest on Monday

This really is for the children.  It’s irresponsible to saddle them with debt that resulted from the mistakes of people that we elected (and when I say ‘we’ I’m actually just being polite since I didn’t do anything to elect Clinton or Greenspan).  The next generation should be left to decide for themselves how much debt they deserve and can handle.

But for all of my ‘fans’ out there, I’m sorry to disappoint but I won’t be attending the rally.  I have a prior commitment.   If not for that I would be there.

Update:

From the Boston Tea Party to your neighborhood pork protest
A Protest for the Rest of Us
Seattle’s Stimulus Bill Protest
Signs of the day
So, so proud - happy, satisfied, tired, RILED UP!!!

It seems that Norm Dicks has received $59,500 in campaign contributions from a defense lobbyist group that, in turn, received about $100 million in defense contracts for it’s clients

In case you hadn’t guessed already, I didn’t vote for him.  It does remind me of one of the funniest campaign stickers I’ve ever seen.  Someone tore off the ‘rm’ from one of his stickers and slapped it on the sidewalk at the Freedom Fair.

Since Dicks is a Democrat there will likely be nothing that becomes of this fact.  However, if he were a Republican you can bet he’d be investigated by every government agency with even the remotest interest in such things.

It’s kind of like Barry signing an executive order restricting the hiring of lobbyists, then turning around and filing for numerous exceptions to his own rules.  I’m guessing you didn’t hear much about it.  The media like to keep the facts about Barry quiet, just like they do for any other Democrat.  Republicans, of course, receive no such special treatment in the media.

Dicks among beneficiaries of suspect lobbyist firm

Another point to note about this story is that the congressman at the center of this investigation is none other than ABSCAM-bribe-recipient-caught-on-tape John Murtha.  Has anyone heard if he’s going to be prosecuted for accepting that bribe?  Oh, wait.  My mistake.  He’s a Democrat.

So where are all of the people who screamed about Dick Cheney and his former ties to a defense contractor.  All I hear are crickets chirping from that gallery.  No surprise there either.