And when it was election time, his disciple Gregoire came to The One, saying, This Washington economy is a desert place, and the time is now past; send the multitude away, that they may go into the villages, and find themselves their own jobs.

But Obama said unto her, They need not depart; give ye them a stimulus.

And she said unto him, We have here in Washington but nine Congressional districts.

He said, Bring the website hither to me.

And Obama commanded the multitude to log on to recovery.gov, and took the nine Congressional districts, and looking up to heaven, he blessed, and created nine more Congressional districts, and gave them $6,729,117, and created 76 jobs with ye stimulus.

In case you haven't see it yet, recovery.gov is reporting that 76 new jobs have been saved or created in nine non-existent Washington Congressional Districts (the 00th, 10th, 11th, 15th, 16th, 21st, 24th, 38th, and 39th) at a cost of $6,729,117.  Similar reports are to be found in every state in the union.

According to ABC, which broke the story:

Rep. David Obey, D-Wisc, who chairs the powerful House appropriations Committee, issued a paper statement demanding that the recovery.gov Web site be updated.

"The inaccuracies on recovery.gov that have come to light are outrageous and the Administration owes itself, the Congress, and every American a commitment to work night and day to correct the ludicrous mistakes." 

G. Edward DeSeve, Special Advisor to the Office of Management and Budget for Implementation of the Recovery Act claimed "some mistakes were inevitable" and "do nothing to disprove the effectiveness of the stimulus."

I plan to use the same argument with the IRS next April...

Washington State Sets New Record!

In his first major interview with the 'hated' Fox News, President Obama is now saying that we WILL HAVE A DOUBLE DIP RECESSION! 

In a continuing deterioration of the economy in Washington State the latest numbers coming in for October show a major monthly increase in unemployment statewide. Seasonably adjusted the U3 number came in at 9.3% unemployed or 331,000. U3 is the number of folks who have filed and are collecting unemployment benefits. The U6 number of 604,871 people out of work is that U3 number combined with those whose benefits have expired or have given up trying to find a job in the first place.

Just to give you an idea of how bad things are. King County now has 97,830 people collecting unemployment with an out of work total of 179,917 people. In battered Snohomish County it has now set an ALL TIME record for the number of people out of work 70,000 with almost 40,000 still collecting unemployment benefits. The Metro Seattle, Bellevue, and Everett totals really tell the story: 138,000 collecting benefits while a grand total of 256,233 are out of work.

What really is amazing is the story coming out of Washington, DC today that the Obama Administration is attempting to pass out false information about how many jobs the so-called stimulus plan has saved or created. Obama is apparently inventing stats for Congressional Districts that don’t exist. I talked to a leading Democrat this AM about this story and his response is that he thinks that the Obama Administration is losing it over the unemployment numbers because they know that it spells political doom for Democrats in the 2010 Congressional elections.

I also received information late yesterday that the Washington State Budget situation is far worse than the $2 Billion dollar shortfall the “bought and paid for” media is reporting in the state. The story in the Everett Herald, I am told, is off by at least 1.5 Billion. That means the problem is really about 3.5 Billion dollars. That doesn’t surprise the observers that I have talked to given the Retail Sales Numbers the state is seeing.

IN addition to everything else, foreclosures continue to accelerate in many of the areas. I reported on Snohomish County some time ago. Clearly this is a major disaster for the state and Western Washington in particular. This many people being impacted is the story you will not see the bubble, air head newsies on the Seattle TV stations report or read in the Newspapers purchased by the Washington State Democratic Party with a 40% tax reduction in the last legislative session, and for good reason.

Is This The End of the Washington State GOP?

A wave of dread and doom descended on Washington State Republicans as election results in this off year election were finally counted. The general election result that shattered any hope of Republican resurgence in the state was the King County Executive’s race. Councilman Dow Constantine smashed blue dog, moderate Democrat Susan Hutchinson in that election contest. Republicans in King County now go down in defeat again in their attempt to elect someone other than radical, leftwing, crackpots like Constantine. Many are questioning why the King County Republican Party backed Susan and not a principled conservative in the first place!

Here in Snohomish County Republican conservative John Koster ran up some impressive numbers as he defeated Seattle crackpot Paul Brainerd’s candidate for the Snohomish County Council. There is already talk that Koster will run against a weak and vulnerable Aaron Reardon for County Executive in 2011. Elsewhere, Democrats continued their dominance in the county by re-electing a very unpopular Dave Somers over a token Republican candidate in the 5^th Council District using low turn outs and outright lies combined with little or no campaign cash for Steve Dana. They also elected blue dog Democrat Joe Wilson to the Snohomish County bench, and Dave Gossett in the 4^th Council District. Word reached me on election night that the Democrats can’t wait to vote in a MAJOR property tax increase before the end of November. They apparently are going to ignore record high unemployment in the county and try to completely destroy what is left of the county’s economy now that Boeing is leaving.

Out of the dust of this off year election came some positive news. A group of concerned Republicans and conservatives have decided to begin the process of purging the left of center leadership in the state GOP at the State and County level. This campaign will probably include some of last year’s Ron Paul supporters in the state, but I understand that some surprising names in the rank and file GOP leadership will be leading this effort. In order to accomplish their goal, it is going to be necessary to do away with the current leadership at the Washington State Republican Party. The first target in this purge will be to get rid of Luke Esser as State Chairman. 

As a conservative from Bellevue explained it to me, “Luke has presided over major defeats in 2008 and now 2009; it’s time for a change!” The fact that Esser has continued to support Rob McKenna, the left of center Mainstream Republican for a future run for Governor, has caused some problems in Snohomish County in particular, where one major figure in the GOP told me on election night, “Rob will never carry this county for Governor; no matter how many people he sweet talks in the party.”

Both RINO lefties, Reed and McKenna, refused to support I-1033 and that move has angered the rank and file GOP Precinct Committee Officers in King, Pierce and Snohomish Counties, according to my sources. Also McKenna’s attempt to allow publication all the names of those who signed the R-71 petition to put homosexual marriage on the ballot has even the state’s libertarians up in arms. One of the leaders in the Reject R-71 campaign wondered out loud to me on election night why McKenna remains in the GOP, “He walks like a Democrat, talks like a Democrat; therefore he must be a Democrat. What the hell is so hard to understand about that?” It is widely known that both Reed and McKenna went out of their way to oppose the attempt to roll back “Homosexual Marriage” in Washington, at odds with the majority of the GOP rank and file.

What about 2010? Well, other parts of the nation may have an easy time knocking off Democrats in the House of Representatives, but bleak prospects face Republicans in Western Washington. Even though GOP incumbent Dave Reichert has a war chest in the 8^th CG, his vote in favor of the insane Cap and Tax bill probably dooms him to defeat against an extremely well financed Democrat that has yet to announce their candidacy (according to my sources). In the 1^st CG and the 2^nd CG both Democrats Rick Larsen and Jay Inslee are vulnerable to a challenge, but Republicans cannot come up with candidates or the $2 million dollars per campaign that it would cost to defeat either incumbent Democrat! I expect the GOP to run the typical token and under financed congressional candidates in these races.

As for the State Legislature, ‘slim pickens’ face the GOP in Snohomish and King Counties not only because they have no candidates they also have zero money available to finance campaigns. Dan Kristiansen, the 39^th GOP State House Representative and the Chair of House Republicans told me bluntly that they will have to pick and choose which candidates to support because of the lack of funding and little if any campaign contributions. 

At the state level, Rob McKenna and Sam Reed continue to play the Dan Evans ‘bell curve’ game hoping to get re-elected, but they will have to do it without the support of most county GOP organizations. This next time they come up for election they will be facing not only well financed opposition from the Democrats but a major effort to throw them out of office. Washington State Democratic Chief Dwight Pelz believes the best way to deal with Rob McKenna and Sam Reed is to go after them, head on! To make matters worse, several conservative Republicans are eyeing these races with the full intention of knocking them off. So McKenna and Reed are both under fire from both political parties. Not a good situation to be in.

Whatever happens this next year, Washington State continues its downward drop into the economic abyss. I even hear that crackpot Governor Gregoire intends to push for passage of a STATE Cap and Trade global warming measure with the full intention of imposing a massive energy tax resulting in potential rationing on electrical and energy use across the board in Washington State. She will also be pushing for a state income tax to be placed on the ballot in 2010. If these two items were to pass into law, many believe that this state would suffer an economic collapse unlike anything that has ever happened before. Possibly worse than the great depression and the 1971 Supersonic Transport disaster when Boeing laid off 60,000 people.

KIRO talker Dori Monson nailed it with this evaluation of Tuesday's election here in Washington:

This may be the most singular one-party state in the nation.

New Jersey and Virginia voted for Obama a year ago - but for Republican governors tonight... Liberal Maine rejected gay marriage... Blue-state California voters earlier this year rejected tax increases...

But in Washington, our one-controlling-party mentallity rolls on.

King County government is facing a $54-million deficit - and one of the people who got the county into that financial mess has been elected Exec - because he's a Dem.

Init-1033 restricting the growth of government? Rejected.

Gay partnerships? Supported.

Huge property tax increase in Seattle for low income housing? Of course! Seattle never saw a tax increase the voters didn't love.

I evaluate each race and issue on its individual merits (I supported Ref-71 - everyone other endorsement I made on the above races lost). But despite national trends favoring Republicans, in Washington the vast majority of voters are robots. Every Democrat wins. Every expansion of government passes. Every liberal cause prevails.

The unions chased Boeing out of the state - and every winning candidate paid tribute to their big-money union support. Our unemployment rate is well above the national average. Our state is facing another multi-billion dollar deficit. King County has a $54-million deficit. Seattle a $40-million deficit.

Why wouldn't we stay the course? Election Day was business as usual in our one-party state.

Remember, Governor Gregoire made this astonishing statement over a month before Election Day:

I've told them [Democratic legislators] come on in and convince me that's [raising taxes] the right thing to do and that people will support it. At some point the people, I assume, don't want us to take any more cuts. I'm already hearing about 'why did you cut education?' Well there aren't any options

Many political observers were stunned that Gregoire would reverse her "no new taxes" stance so close to the election and felt that she was handing a win to Tim Eyman on a silver platter.  Wrong.  The Governor knows her liberal Pugetopolis base well and counted on the fact that I-1033 would be outspent some $3 million to none by wealthy liberal opponents of I-1033.  More importantly, local elected officials throughout the state, both Republican and Democrat, joined in the scare-it-to-ya chorus against I-1033.

"At some point the people, I assume, don't want us to take any more cuts."  Don't you think that is the takeaway from Washington voter's rejection of I-1033?  It certainly will be among Democrats in Olympia.  It already is at the Northwest Progressive Insititute, which proudly proclaimed that "Collapse of Tim Eyman's Initiative 1033 proves that teabaggers are just a fringe."

Now, I don't think even Democrats are stupid enough to introduce new taxes in an election year, but if Washington Republicans don't make significant gains in the legislature in 2010, look out for the next biennial budget coming up in 2011.  Labor unions and other left-wing advocacy groups have made it clear they will tolerate no further cuts to their pet programs and the state will have to address what will likely be a $2-3 billion plus budget shortfall by that time.  Those groups will point to the I-1033 vote and say Washingtonians are finally ready for that dreaded state income tax.

Hey, you were warned.  We get the government we deserve.

Earlier this year, the marble halls of the state capitol echoed with dire predictions of death and doom as lawmakers cut several billion dollars from the state budget.  "People will die," Rep. Eric Pettigrew (D-Seattle) famously quipped in defending a proposed tax hike.

By the time they passed a budget lawmakers claimed they had dug deep into state spending and trimmed all the fat before cutting into vital state programs.  Apparently they didn't dig very deep.

While making cuts to health care subsidies, education, and corrections, lawmakers decided to continue spending money to promote tourism.  Perhaps Rep. Pettigrew was afraid people would die if the state didn't create a special map showing tourists where to find Twilight hot spots in the town of Forks:

That's right, because Washington is "home of the exciting Twilight saga," the state is spending our money to promote Forks as THE place to be for the show's aficionados.

Promoting tourism is a good thing (though I would argue it is not a function of government--let the businesses that will profit spend their money to promote tourism), but can lawmakers seriously expect their constituents to believe they're prioritizing spending when they continue to fund stuff like this?  When I go to a townhall meeting and my legislators look me in the eye and say "there's nothing else to cut" in the state budget, this comes to mind as a perfect example of why they should spend less time meeting with lobbyists and more time actually reading the state budget and evaluating agency functions.

By the way, if you're inclined to snipe back in the comment box with the shopworn line that funds used for stuff like this could be "dedicated funds" or "special grants" or whatever, think again.  This comes right from the state General Fund (see page 19 of this document from the state's Office of Financial Management, and spend some time digging through http://fiscal.wa.gov/).  This is a line-item appropriation that could have been cut to use the funds elsewhere.

Pierce County voters today will decide the fate of Charter Amendment 3, which if passed, would modify the county charter to eliminate ranked choice voting and restore the primary and general election system for all county elected offices.

Here are three good reasons to approve Charter Amendment 3:

1. Takoma Park, Maryland Is Not Tacoma, Washington -  63% of Pierce County voters dislike ranked choice voting.  This number is based on nearly 91,000 voters who filled out a questionnaire that accompanied mail-in ballots last year. 

So who does support ranked choice voting?  Special interest groups from Maryland, who have donated some $32,000 to oppose Charter Amendment 3.  Here's what the Pierce County Better Government League had to say about it in a press release: 

PDC records show that Citizens Against Rigging the System (CARS) is funded entirely by two organizations: Fair Vote of Takoma, Maryland and a political action committee that shares CARS’s P.O. Box.  Of the total $27,000 contributed to CARS, $22,000 has been donated by Fair Vote and $5,000 from the PAC that is itself heavily funded by Fair Vote.

It appears that Fair Vote’s contribution is the largest to a Pierce County Charter Amendment campaign on record.

The money to support Charter Amendment 3 has been raised entirely in Pierce County.

2.  Crock the Vote -  Ranked choice voting is supposed to give voters more choices, but, in fact, it ends up disenfranchising them.  Ranked choice voting is too complicated (and expensive), both in its voting and counting methodology.  It leads to under-voting, whereby a voter chooses not to vote on a specific race or issue.  A study by the Washington Poll concluded: 

Overall, under-voting was greater in the RCV contests than in the traditional ballot contests. Although this may be due to the fact that voters received two different ballots, this trend toward under‐voting is worrisome.

The Washington Poll study also found that about 20,000 fewer voters returned their ranked choice voting ballots than returned their traditional ballot.

3.  This is America, Not Europe - The above-mentioned Fair Vote's director is Washington resident and former Nirvana bassist, Krist Novoselic.   Novoselic and Fair Vote's stated goal is to implement proportional representation, an electoral system aimed at securing a close match between the percentage of votes that groups of candidates (grouped by a certain measure) obtain in elections and the percentage of seats they receive in the legislature.  This system in Europe has allowed fringe political groups as the Communists, Socialists, Greens, and neo-Nazis to acheive political relevance, as these parties' assistance is often required to form (unstable) coaltion governments.  According to Texas A&M political scientist Chris Lawrence:

If the incentives for a two party system melted away, more likely than not our existing Republican and Democratic parties would melt away with them (or at least be transformed beyond recognition). And if you think our parties are bad now, wait until you see the parties led by Maxine Waters and Pat Robertson (or their acolytes) and comprised solely of their true believers.

Ranked choice voting opens the door for extremist, crackpot, and/or grossly unqualified candidates to take office.  This already been seen in Pierce County, according to the Tacoma News Tribune:

The third candidate in the [Pierce County Auditor] race, Will Baker, deserves special mention. He’s been arrested many times for disrupting public meetings, and he’s been convicted of disorderly conduct.

He’s made a hobby of running for office, and we would ordinarily regard his candidacy as a joke. Under ranked-choice voting, however, he could conceivably win if he garners enough second-choice votes. Not all diehard Republicans and Democrats are aware of Baker’s past, and some might choose him over the better known candidate from the other party. When he ran for state auditor as a Republican in 2004, he won a dismaying one-third of the total vote.

Another perennial candidate with no apparent qualifications, Dale Washam, managed to get himself elected assessor-treasurer on an RCV ballot last year. The assessor-treasurer’s office is now in predictable disarray. Let’s not repeat the mistake with a candidate who, unlike Washam, actually has a criminal record.