"Effort to recall Port Commissioner [Pat] Davis fails". Fortunately, she's stepping down anyway.
Another one of Ron Sims' schemes to "create wealth more efficiently" implodes: Green Cab Awash with Red Ink
Speaking of Sims: "Sims nomination mocks transparency claims"
This city is in the best of hands -- "Seattle council blasts chaotic snow response"
But they want to charge you more for the privilege of living here so they can make your housing more affordable, or something.
State Legislature shreds voter-approved performance audit program budget. Because when money is tight, it's less important to ensure that the money is well-spent, or something.
Posted by Stefan Sharkansky at May 01, 2009 10:05 AM | Email ThisT Mobile VP & former PWC Director Joe Mallhan declared for Mayor 4pm Thurs Apr-30th saying "I'm running for mayor of Seattle because I believe that current City Leadership fails to project a bold civic vision, and instead executes small plans and stumbles when delivering the most basic municipal services. Join with me and my campaign as we get moving and together, build a better Seattle. "
Mr Mallahan's background is VP Operations Strategy T-Mobile, Director PrcewaterhouseCoopers, President Century Supply Co., and Asst to General Counsel at VNU Business Information.
His education is MBA Finance University of Chicago, MA International Studies University of Washington, and BA Politics The Catholic University of America.
Unless one of the regulars does a top level review, we will try and create a matrix that compare all five (5) declared Seattle Mayoral candidates identifying accomplishments, failures, and education background.
The other four (4) declared candidates are James Donaldson, Michael McGinn, Greg Nickels, and Norman Sigler.
http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/referenceresources/candidatefiling.aspx
The King County Election website says filing "closes at 4:30 p.m. on June 5, 2009".
King County Elections office, 919 SW Grady Way Renton, WA 98057-2906 206-296-VOTE (8683) will be closed May 9 and May 12.
Susanna Williams is his Deputy Campaign Manager for Mr Mallahan.
I can't help but think of the conflicted audit that the contractors for the viaduct rebuild or tunnel option did to the respected engineers who dared to suggest a retrofit to new standards was a good deal. With tens of millions of consultant fees on the line, the auditors declared the retrofit was too costly. Hmmmm.
To me, these existing performance audits and whose budget was cut didn't accomplish what we wanted them to. And that is to force the State to rethink what they are doing and do it better. They found a few problems but nothing that caused the State to retool.
Posted by: swatter on May 1, 2009 11:56 AMSeattle is starting to exhibit the effects of its leadership that has been living in a fantasy land for about 20 years now.
Talk about stingy, cold hearted conservatives. You guys just take the cake.
Posted by: G Jiggy on May 1, 2009 03:41 PMI would say that is because the auditor does not have the power to enforce any audit findings. They only report what they find - they can't force agencies to make recommended changes.
Posted by: Michael H on May 1, 2009 04:11 PMOr, rather, creating....something that looks more like massive failure to the rest of us.
Posted by: Michele on May 1, 2009 06:06 PM"President Obama made a short statement about the retirement of Justice Souter in which he outlined what he will be looking for in Souter's replacement. He stated, in part:
I will seek someone who understands that justice isn't about some abstract legal theory or footnote in a case book. It is also about how our laws affect the daily realities of people's lives -- whether they can make a living and care for their families; whether they feel safe in their homes and welcome in their own nation.
I view that quality of empathy, of understanding and identifying with people's hopes and struggles as an essential ingredient for arriving as just decisions and outcomes
By indicating that his concern is not just with just decisions but also just outcomes, Obama reveals the lawless quality of his thinking. The legitimate function of a judge is to reach just decisions, full stop. Once judges, or the president who appoints them, start thinking about just outcomes, we are well down the path to judicial tyranny. And once just outcomes are defined as those that display empathy for "the people," we could be starting down the road to banana republic status.
Obama apparently wants outcomes that will make people feel welcome in their own nation. It's not clear to me what he's referring to here. But whatever it is, the extent to which people feel welcome must be determined by how their neighbors view them and, to the extent (limited, one hopes) the law becomes involved, the rights and benefits conferred by the language of the laws in question.
If Obama wants to appoint a Justice who has run or worked in a soup kitchen, that's fine. But it looks to me like he wants to appoint a Justice who will reach outcomes that establish "soup kitchens" regardless of whether that's the best view of the legal provision he or she is interpreting.
Expect the worst, not just from this judicial nomination but from all subsequent ones."
Posted by: KDS on May 1, 2009 07:34 PMhttp://blog.seattletimes.nwsource.com/politicsnorthwest/2009/05/01/sims_roughed_up_on_way_to_conf.html
Posted by: Steve on May 1, 2009 08:05 PMBy the way, four out of the five incumbent Pork of Seattle commissioners were either endorsed by the King County Republican Party (John Creighton, Bill Bryant, Lloyd Hara) or defeated the candidate endorsed by the King County Democratic Party with considerable Republican support (Pat Davis). Gail Tarleton is the only port commissioner who was supported by the King County Democrats and opposed by the King County Republicans.
Posted by: Richard Pope on May 1, 2009 09:09 PMSince no leftists were making the latte argument, I felt that I had to step up.
Posted by: G Jiggy on May 1, 2009 10:47 PMWho in the H votes for this kind of leadership, I do not know! Nor do I want to know
The Swine flue came from Pigs - you do the logic in Olympic.
Posted by: gs on May 1, 2009 11:57 PMThey seem to be absent when liberal idiocy is pointed out.
You've just gotta love these people. They are the same crazies who tell us that if we let our cats out of the house millions of birds will die.
My question involves the psychological makeup of those on the left:
Are they really concerned "progressive" citizens?
Or do meddling, overbearing, controlling people naturally gravitate to the left?
I think it is the latter.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on May 2, 2009 07:24 AMBrian better be careful about that. The Won and The Queen don't like stormtroopers who think for themselves...
Posted by: iconoclast on May 2, 2009 08:09 AMResults don't matter; only intentions count! Thus there is no need for the Marxist Slavers to comment on this thread since the intentions were good and pure; the results are irrelevant.
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on May 2, 2009 10:42 AMAny wonder at all why they hate performance audits?
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on May 2, 2009 02:02 PMI-900-funded audits saved more money than they cost, making this spending a net budget PLUS for the state. So cutting the auditor's budget can not be seen as a cost-saving measure. It is actually a cost-increasing step.
So, if cost-saving is not the goal of cutting the auditor's budget, what is the goal?
It can only be to protect wasteful spending. It can only be to protect spending that is unjustified by efficacy or popularity. It must be to protect corrupt, political spending.
Does the legislature and the governor think that people are stupid? I guess so.
The good news is that if we can publicise this gutting of I-900, perhaps we can generate more support for Eyman's current initiative to limit property taxes.
Tim's my hero!
Posted by: Bruce Guthrie on May 2, 2009 09:16 PMSeems to me there would be a good set of comparisons if there were.
Posted by: BA on May 2, 2009 09:51 PMHow amazingly tolerant, diverse, and loving you are! Truly the epitomy of the Leftist movement of America, with such caring and compassion.
HOPE AND LOVE AND CHANGE!
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on May 3, 2009 09:15 AMThe First Amendment gives everyone the freedom of speech, but not without consequences. There's a thing called accountability that too many seem to try and blow off. That is a consequence of free speech.
Posted by: KS on May 3, 2009 04:31 PMI am not afraid of some goofball using a handle such as "gopmustdie".
People who feel compelled to behave like that only confirm what we know about the left.
Posted by: Bill Cruchon on May 3, 2009 04:57 PMThere are others like demo kid, no facts, Cato, Bruce who spray their drive by lies and obfuscate and are good at being slippery because they think its cool, but most people here can see that they are of weak character and lack the substance to do their part to provide an interesting forum. Intellectually, their opposition has to do the heavy lifting. For instance, Shanghai Dan and Pudge do it well by refuting their points line by line to dissect their rouse. Most of the time, it is not worth expending that level of effort though, as they have not shown to be capable of offering a debate of substance. Verboseness and talking points don't cut it. This is not uncommon in the media - many of the shills working for the mainstream publications use these schemes to "scoop" their mostly hollow stories - no wonder their circulation is shrinking fast - there's more to it than just the new media.
Posted by: KS on May 3, 2009 08:15 PMHere's a video about Harborview's Planned Response.
http://tinyurl.com/harborviewpandemicresponsevid
Posted by: Steve on May 4, 2009 08:22 AMSee here. It's a blown-up/made-up "crisis", given that:
1. The H1N1 "swine" flu is less virulent than other strains of the flu
2. The H1N1 "swine" flu dies within 2 hours when outside a body (about 1/10th the normal flu duration)
3. The H1N1 "swine" flu is not communicable by air
So what we have is a lot of fear-mongering and confusion to make people clammor for "help us Obama you're our only hope!" so he can justify his insane nationalization of health care.
Make no mistake, this non-event (zero deaths of US citizens so far, less than 60 confirmed deaths world-wide - nothing compared to the average of 3,000 deaths a month in the US alone due to the normal strains of flu) is being hyped and over-blown strictly to be a basis for policy. It is a manufactured crisis and as Rahm Emanuel reminded us, "never let a crisis go to waste".
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on May 4, 2009 09:12 AMI also know that we are a much more mobile society now than we were back then.
Look, we hope that medical professionals are successful in minimizing the spread of this disease. That would mean that all the public awareness had a positive effect. It would not mean that the problem was overblown.
Look we are due for a major pandemic. Whether it is this one or an another one in the future it is an issue that we all need to be concerned about.
Not everything is a "conspiracy". Medical professionals are doing their best to stop the worse from happening. But this can only happen if we are prepared for the worse.
Kind of like if you want peace prepare for war.
And here is some of the preparations. This is a lecture to medical professions by an expert in pandemics. Not some hyper conspiracy video.
http://tinyurl.com/harborviewpandemicresponsevid
Posted by: Steve on May 4, 2009 09:41 AMhttp://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-4593078827097236236&ei=gKD-SZmwJIuEqQOtn6DfCA
Posted by: Steve on May 4, 2009 09:44 AMMedical treatment and diagnosis is a bit upgraded since 1918, too... A broken arm was a serious risk of death back in the 1910-1920 timeframe; now it's a few hours of pain and 4-6 weeks of inconvenience.
Bottom line: the WHO has admitted this is a less virulent, harder to transmit strain compared to the standard flu.
You can keep fear-mongering if you like, but take it to the other thread where it's relevant.
Posted by: Shanghai Dan on May 4, 2009 10:28 PM