WhackyNation

… about State Representative Shirley Hankins, as did some in the Tri-Cities media.  Mea Culpa!

Hankins kept mum on why she invited Democrat Speaker Frank Chopp and not local Republicans to a dinner event and that fueled speculation that she was switching parties.  I fell for the speculation, too, only to learn that Hankins craftedly used the rumor mill to generate publicity about her announcement.  She’s fronting for an educational foundation purportedly to help kids with a 3.0 gpa to college.

So, I’m delighted that Hankins is staying with the Republican caucus.

But what about my criticism about House Minority Leader Richard DeBoldt and HROC?  I stand by most of it, except I need to soften my assertion that DeBoldt intimindated State representatives Fred Jarrett and Rodney Thom to switch parties.  Jarrett emailed me to say that was not the reason he switched parties.

I still say the box scores of recent elections as well as PDC reports showing campaign resources going to long-shot candidates and not incuments proves HROC — and its leadership — as ineffective.  I also stand by my assertion that both the House and Senate caucuses do not have a savvy about the politics of the surburban crescent because the caucus members are too focussed on rural Washington.  I’d like to believe that DeBoldt has truly learned from these mistakes, but I am unconvinced.  I’d be the first to help him if he convinced me.

As for the Hankin’s story, well, I guess, it impacts what I eat for dinner tonight.  Here’s the recipe:

As predicted by Republican legislators, the bow-wave effect of Democrat spending will put the state in deep doo-doo in a couple of years.

A new report for the State Senate Ways and Means Committee show the state will be nearly a $ billion short for the next biennium’s budget … and $2 1/2 billion short for the following biennium.  And those are the numbers before a new state revenue forecast is released in two weeks; … and it’s predicted to be gloomy.

Now enjoying themselves in the “I-told-you-so” position, can Dino Rossi and the House and Senate Caucuses communicate the problems wrought by Governor $pendmore and Speaker Chopp-Chopp?

State spending has increased by over 30 percent these past three years.

What are the chances the Seattle media will pick up on this?

Here’s a news item you won’t see in the mainstream press in Washington because it goes over their heads:

Frank Chopp and his Democrat Leadership in the House have changed procedures for bills to process through the key House Appropriations Committee.  It’s a way to bypass Helen Sommers, Chair of Appropriations, and despite her liberalness, is somehat conservative compared to the rest of her caucus.

Oh Franky-Boy last session created sub-committees to House Appropriatons.  Now he has just made a subtle rule change.  Now these subcommittees can pass out bills to the floor without having to be approved by the full Appropriations Committee.  Helen Sommers has been bypassed.  The House Appropriations Committee has been emasculated.  These sub-commmittees have been given great power.

Bottom line: we may see King County Democrats push more spending measures to the floor where it’s likely they’ll be passed.  Considering how liberal the Senate is, they’ll be passed there as well.  This means there will be fiscal and political pressure brought to bear on Governor Gregoire.

With Dino Rossi breathing down her neck, the question is: will Gregoire use her veto power to curtail excess spending or cave into the base of her party?  That’s the story of the next four months.

I am personally liking the prospects that Hillary will top the ticket and Gregoire will have the excesses of her party here in Washington to defend.  The prospects of Dino Rossi are looking better.  Merry Christmas, everybody!

What a great morning!  Have you read the election results?  Every liberal measure except the insurance initiative got trounced!

The voters are saying, “We have had enough!  Get out of our wallets!   Screw you liberals who want to wantonly spend our money that we need for our families!”

And in Olympia, Christine Gregoire has to being having a panic attack.  She can’t undo increasing the state budget by nearly a third.  Frank Chopp has be concerned, too.  The only thing saving him is the fact that the Republicans have the most inept minority leader in a generation and the Republican caucus doesn’t have the balls to do anything about it.

And I have to chuckle to myself that every liberal blogger in the state is knocked down a peg or two.  Their crystal balls aren’t so clear.

Oh, what a great morning!

Just two days before the next election with property tax measures on the ballot, the Seattle Times reports in an editorial that the legislature stealthly changed tax laws to make all temporary levies permanent!

A change in the state law regarding property taxes has silently transformed what have been temporary tax increases into permanent ones.

We say “silently” because the Legislature, which made the change, did not name what it was doing in the bill title or the bill reports. The change is something every voter should keep in mind as the election arrives Tuesday and more new taxes are proposed in November.

On the surface, Senate Bill 5498 allows fire districts and other special-purpose taxing districts to ask voters for multiyear tax increases. It is the same authority cities and counties already had.

The nonobvious part of the bill changed the old rule that unless a tax levy said specifically it was permanent, it wasn’t. Under the old rule, after a levy expired, Washington’s 1-percent property-tax limit would be set as if the levy had never happened. If voters didn’t renew the levy, their taxes would go down.

Under SB 5498 — a governor’s-request bill passed by large majorities in both houses — unless a tax levy says it is temporary, its authority is permanent. So says the Department of Revenue in an official memo to county assessors.

This is incredible.  Vote NO on all tax measures.

In an article in today’s Seattle Weekly, Frank Chopp says his organization is targetting eight seats held by Republicans:

The House Democratic Campaign Committee has eight Republican incumbents in its sights for 2008. Six of these seats, Chopp says, should be winnable. They include: the 17th District seat now held by Rep. Jim Dunn, R-Vancouver; the 10th District seat now held by Rep. Barbara Bailey, R–Whidbey Island; the 30th District seat now held by Rep. Skip Priest, R-Federal Way; the 25th District seat now held by Rep. Joyce McDonald, R-Puyallup; the 2nd District seat now held by Rep. Jim McCune, R-Graham; and the 41st District seat now held by Fred Jarrett, R-Bellevue.

The whore relationship between Democrat office holders and government employees came out of the closet when Barrack Obama told Iowa State employees he’d walk their picket line if they help elect him to the White House.

“I stood on the picket line and marched with workers at the Congress Hotel in Chicago last week,” Obama said. “I had marched with them four years earlier and I told them when I left that if they were still fighting four years from now, I’d be back on that picket line as president of the United States and we’ll get the Congress Hotel organized.”

“I won’t just vote the right way with you, I will stand with you,” he said.

Billary, the Breck Girl and Chris Dodd have also addressed the Iowa State employee unions.

In Washington State, Christine Gregoire and Frank Chopp drop to their knees for the same respective unions.

When will independent voters wake up and see the incestuous relationship between Democrats and government employee unions?

With the tragic death of the 12-year-old girl this week, I’m not only reminded of how Speaker Frank Chopp allowed Jessica’s Bill to be sissified this past legislature, but how Governor Christine Gregoire has further emasculated the State Patrol.

Starting with Democrat Governor Lowry, continuing with Democrat Governors Gary Locke and Gregoire, the State Patrol has been transformed from a crime fighting police agency to a cadre of traffic cops.

In the current budget, for instance, monies for the the Patrol to fight drugs, mostly imported by illegal aliens, was reduced.  As a result, several detectives have transferred out of the Anti-Drug Unit.  They were probably issued radar guns.

Imagine instead, a real police agency with capable detectives … and one that not only went after the drug pushers but also the sex offenders who skip from one county sheriff’s jurisdiction to another.  That’s what most Republicans want, but Democrats don’t.

Under permissive Democrat leadership these past two decades our schools and streets are not as safe for our children, let alone ourselves.   The headlines in the papers prove that.

And Chopp and Gregoire?  Weak sisters, both of them.   They’re responsible for weak state laws and weak state law enforcement.

That’s why we can’t let the voters forget how the Chopp and his Democrats weaked Jessica’s Bill and how Gregoire emasculated the State Patrol.

A number of us Rotarians were enjoying fellowship before the meeting Tuesday when the topic of the Bush tax cuts came up.  It being tax day the subject was dear to heart.

All of us bemoaned the great ignorance of Pelosi and Reid who are pushing for the greatest tax increase in US history - some $400 billion — and most of it from the wealthy.

We all agreed Pelosi and Reid are going to kill the greatest economic expansion this country has seen — even in the light of terrorist attacks and oil scarcities.

Each of us shared — one by one — how we bought and sold office buildings, stocks and other assets this year because we were prompted by a low capital gains rate.  We all agreed the lower rate encouraged us to make the transactions that higher rates would have encouraged us not to make.  The six of us had tax bills to the Treasury that collectively exceeded a million dollars.  Ouch.

So the six of us bought and sold millions of dollars of assets this year because of the Bush tax cuts.  Those transactions created commissions and employment as we fixed up properties and other assets … and that created more tax revenue.   Everyone we employed from construction workers, architects, interior designers, real estate agents, and all the people they spent their money with — they all generated more tax revenue into the system.  This is called “velocity of money” as it passes through a community.  And this was just six of us!  A fraction of one small club!  I guarantee you this conversation was replicated thoughout thousands of Rotary Clubs throughout the US.

Altogether more tax revenue is generated in a world of lower tax rates than in those of higher rates.  The economy grows faster.  More people have jobs.  JFK, Reagan and Bush have known this.

But, with the class warfare populism of the Democrats and the ignorance of the left in general, promoted by the liberal, drive-by media, the US may soon become like Western Europe and adopt higher tax rates and reaping its harvest of higher unemployment and a stagnated economy.

Washington State will be especially hard hit.  When the D’s in Washington throw the monkey wrench of higher taxation into the gears of our robust economy, the D’s in Olympia are going to be desperate in two years when state tax revenues decline and cannot come close to meeting the spending needs of all the new social welfare programs they created this session.

Frank Chopp won’t pay the price.  He has a safe seat.  The Socialistic Republic of Fremont will return him to office even if hell freezes over in these days of global warming.  Helen Sommers (Chair of House Appropriations) of Queen Anne is safe, too.  And so is Margarita Prentice (Chair of Senate Ways and Means) of Renton.

No, it’s Princess Gregoire who is toast.  When the state hits a budget crisis in two years, Gregoire will take the rap.  (She only won by — how many votes? — well, it depends on which count).  I can’t believe she can’t see it coming and isn’t doing anything now to protect her future. 

Frank is such a master.  Such a better chess player.  But, Frank, don’t you want a Democrat Governor to sign your future legislation?  It seems Frank is willing to risk the Governor’s race for the sake of pleasing his constituencies today.

Hey, Ron Sims.  Hey, Chrisitine Gregoire.  Hey, Frank Chopp.

Have any comment about the sad story in the Sleazeattle Times today, that 83 high-risk felons including level three sex offenders were released last week because of overcrowded jails?

As you push your socialism agenda “in the name of the children,” your lack of leadership in crime prevention means our children have a higher probability of getting raped or murdered.

School and the doctor’s office, dear Dems, means nothing if you are dead.

“We’ve had officers killed, we’ve had officers injured, and all of them at the hands of somebody who should have been in prison,” Seattle Police Officers’ Guild President Rich O’Neill said Monday. “You make a judgment call; you better be right. If one of these sex offenders gets out and re-offends, who is responsible for it?”

Once again, the Dems screw up priorities as they push their agenda of socialism, unionization and environmentalism.