Subduction Zone

Northwest Dealings

Category: Government

Ecology / Economics / Government / Taxation / Washington

They Can Build Their Own

It is rare that the national park service proposes to do something close to the right thing: The National Park Service has proposed turning a washed-out road in north-central Washington’s upper Stehekin Valley into a trail for hikers and horseback riders , but the idea is meeting opposition from residents of the rural community. As you might expect there are those that think this road should be rebuilt: Already, some residents are finding fault with the preferred alternative. Members of the community group Stehekin Heritage say none of the four alternatives is viable. In addition, the preferred option would discourage...

City Government / Government / Renton / Taxation / Uncategorized

Private Potties for Servants?

Just why has public money been spent to provide a private bathroom for Renton’s mayor? Council President Randy Corman said a staffer invited him to use the mayor’s private bathroom , which he didn’t do. He can account for every second of his time, he said, and he was always surrounded by people. “In 10 years I have never used the mayor’s bathroom. On this night, they invited me to,” he said. “That was awfully suspicious to me.” Keolker said that since she took office as mayor, she has regularly told council members they can use her bathroom during meeting...

Government / Taxation

Theft and Sacrifice

In today’s Seattle Times Floyd McKay reports that one of the retired generals calling for rummies resignation was struck by the “lack of sacrifice and commitment on the part of the American people,” excepting military families and closes his opinion piece with But all in all, the upper and middle classes don’t show up in these figures nearly as much as they show up on college campuses across America. We don’t sacrifice either wealth or lives if we are well-off. In fact apoteketreceptfritt.com , if we own defense-industry stock, we make money off this war. Think Halliburton. An honest administration...

Legislature / Washington

Full Time Legislature?

Well, swecker’s full time legislature proposal doesn’t rise up to Carl’s level of support for me: Just to show how bi-partisan I am, here’s a Republican bill I support. Nope, I still haven’t seen a republican bill I support. Sen. Dan Swecker made his pitch for a full-time Legislature on Thursday and, although the plan isn’t going anywhere soon, he did find some receptive listeners. … “I would like to see the Legislature get more proactive in getting involved in the nitty-gritty details of running the state ,” he said. What might this really mean? Let’s look at one aspect...

Economics / Government / Taxation

Your Tax Dollar At Work

I’ve got to remember to read the whole article if the headline or picture catches my eye! Ten days ago the Alaska Airlines salmon plane was plastered all over the papers. For instance here is the Seattle PI article and here is a picture of the plane. Well, Alaska Air has had interesting paintings on its planes for may years so when I saw this picture I thought: “Wow, they’ve gone a bit overboard with this but it does look pretty cool.” And turned to the next page of the paper assuming that this was Alaska Air marketing to the...

Legislature / Oregon

Representative Government?

This year Oregon residents learned a bit about the hollowness of the implementation of representative government: Seven legislators went behind closed doors to decide how to spend billions of state tax dollars. They also chose what legislation — from state Lotto games to sex offenders — would move and what would get squished. The lid was clamped so tight that lawmakers complained they were getting only scraps of information about deals cut between House and Senate leaders — deals that involved some of the most significant bills on the docket. You will probably not find much different in Washington ,...