Posted Wed, Dec 15, 2:32 p.m.

Keith, The economy functioned well during the 50's and 60's when the top income tax rates were 60% or 70% or higher. The economy functioned just fine during the Clinton years when the top tax rates were 38%. The economy did not function very well during the Bush years when ...

Posted Thu, Nov 18, 11:53 a.m.

Knute, are you saying that the rhetoric in the order bothers you more than the substance of the order? If the idea behind the order is that the State of Washington is going to conserve resources by temporarily halting needed regulatory updates then I'm OK with that. If the idea ...

Posted Wed, Nov 17, 5:26 p.m.

Wow. One professor writes an opinion piece in the wall street journal in 2008 stating that he doesn't know anything for sure but the government may be partially at fault. I suppose that means that the Government is to blame for Wa Mu, AIG, Lehman Brothers, mortgage backed securities, credit ...

Posted Sun, Nov 14, 10:38 p.m.

I don't doubt that the data the article is based on are real. But why the pejorative tone? Are we supposed to be trying to import poor people to Seattle in order to concentrate them in a ghetto? What would be the most socially responsible arrangement of poor people? Should ...

Posted Wed, Sep 15, 9:59 p.m.

Chris, First, thanks for proving me wrong! I thought you were a propagandist, always saying that things look good for Republicans no matter what. Now I see that is not true - and as a result I'll have to actually read what you say a bit more carefully. I have ...

Posted Mon, Sep 13, 1:08 p.m.

The problem for marketers is that most baby boomers are already loyal to certain brands and products. The advertisers focus on the 18 year olds because their identities aren't fully formed, and they are easier to manipulate. Sorry seattleguy782, but you're too old to be bamboozled by marketing, and therefore ...

Posted Thu, Sep 2, 10:33 a.m.

Quinn, Do you believe that muslims should be allowed to practice their faith in America? I understand that you don't trust Muslim organizations and that you think that the Muslim faith is striving to convert the whole world to it's laws. Do you think that Muslims can be good American ...

Posted Fri, Aug 27, 9:05 a.m.

First of all, the Dave Horsey article calls her Holly Norris. Is her name Molly or Holly? Second, while I think that it would be nice for local politicians to privately express support, but I don't think that making a huge deal with statements to the media and the cartoonists ...

Posted Wed, Aug 25, 9:11 a.m.

Mr Royer, This seems to be an article about two separate things: job losses in the City of Seattle over the past decade and a laundry list of steps the City of Seattle could take to possibly increase efficiency. The two seem unrelated. You don't even try to prove the ...

Posted Sat, Jul 24, 11:14 p.m.

In seattle there is a clash, but it's not cultural. It's a clash between different business communities and their priorities. The high tech / knowledge based sector has been getting it's way for many years, sometimes at the expense of the blue collar manufacturing sector. Paul Allen has received everything ...

Posted Fri, Jul 23, 8:53 a.m.

An earthquake could strike anytime. Why is the viaduct open right now? If human life and safety is the paramount concern why haven't we closed it? Clearly the State Department of Transportation has already made the decision that keeping the viaduct open is more important than the risk of death ...

Posted Wed, Jul 21, 10:28 a.m.

cvandyk5@msn.com: I understand that the "field turf" fields do not conform to the platonic ideal of a "playfield." Let me assure you, from a functional standpoint synthetic turf fields are very nice. Grass fields turn to fields of dead grass and mud if they are used in the fall, winter ...

Posted Thu, Jul 15, 9:44 a.m.

The majority of Seattle voters, when asked, did not want a tunnel. I think it's monstrously unfair for the state to cram this tunnel - and it's potential cost overruns - down Seattle's throat. If this project goes 30% over budget - like many large projects - Seattle property owners ...

Posted Thu, Jun 3, 2:36 p.m.

I agree that the current construction climate is close to ideal for bidding. And it is true that slowing a project down can add substantially to the cost. Many other things can add to the cost: unsuitable and unstable soil, archeological artifacts, contaminated soil. In the Western Avenue area you ...

Posted Mon, May 3, 10:30 p.m.

Looking at the comments on the web site it seems that this initiative is going nowhere. Two interesting observations: 1. Very few of the commenters trust the income tax to stay a "high earner's" income tax. I find this interesting. How many new taxes or expanded taxes has the State ...

Posted Tue, Apr 27, 11:16 a.m.

Blue Light - Of course, first we'll give the native dog perpetual treaty rights in return for the vast majority of the native dog's land. Then we'll break our word on most of the treaty rights, kill the majority of the native dogs, keep their land, and let the native ...

Posted Tue, Apr 27, 9:18 a.m.

Taupe, our small business is structured so that money the business earns that is re-invested into the business does not count as personal income for Federal tax purposes. We only pay Federal income tax on the money we take out of the business as our own income. Unless the high ...

Posted Tue, Mar 23, 12:14 p.m.

I'm pretty sure that, according to the state constitution, Queen Christine is in fact the boss of Rob McKenna. He has to represent her, as the Governor is the presumed client of the Attorney General.

Posted Mon, Mar 1, 5:36 p.m.

The most salient sentence in this article is "Without a formal budget proposal, it’s hard to calculate whether the Republican proposals add up to enough savings to close the budget gap." I would like to see the author at least try to quantify how these cuts would stack up to ...

Posted Wed, Feb 17, 1:46 p.m.

I wonder what is going to happen with the Tea Party / Club For Growth candidates in Republican primaries. I have a gut feeling that most of the Tea Party types are too conservative for most Washington Voters, but that they may be very attractive to Republican primary voters. I'm ...

Posted Wed, Feb 10, 4:32 p.m.

I agree that Mayor Nickels has hyped his green credentials out of all proportion to his actual accomplishments. Still I find your article to be vague and misleading when talking about the environmental impacts of the Mayor's initiatives. The total milage driven by passenger vehicles increased between 2005 and 2008. ...

Posted Fri, Nov 20, 9:18 p.m.

Looking at the information presented in the Pew Research study, it's hard to reach the conclusions that many of the commenters on this site have reached - that "out of control state legislatures" or "liberals" have caused states to be hit hard by the current economic downturn. It's also hard ...

Posted Wed, Mar 4, 4:47 p.m.

What's your evidence for this fast mobilization? I see a congressional Republican caucus that refused to work with Obama at all, and were proud of it. I see some angry folks over at Red State. I see media elites who don't seem to like Obama. I see lots of talk ...

Posted Wed, Feb 25, 7:19 a.m.

Here are some of those troubling facts that I wanted to see so badly in this discussion on transit oriented debate: Here is a link to HB 1490 that shows that the bill requires 50 units per acre in the areas adjacent to transit stations for Transit Oriented Development: http://apps.leg.wa.gov/documents/billdocs/2009-10/Pdf/Bills/House%20Bills/1490.pdf ...

Posted Tue, Feb 24, 8:44 a.m.

This whole article is one giant pile of B.S. What densities are proposed for the new transit oriented development? What densities are actually realized in Belltown? Please do the math and let us know how the proposed density in the bill relates to the actual density in Belltown, instead of ...

Posted Fri, Feb 20, 7:05 a.m.

P.S. there were many good reasons to vote against the commons - I'm not saying it was a good idea. I was just pointing out that while the Displacement Coalition won the battle against the commons, that victory did not translate into affordable housing and small businesses.

Posted Fri, Feb 20, 6:50 a.m.

The displacement coalition has a long track record of winning battles but losing wars. I think that the most obvious example of this is the fight over the Seattle Commons. For those who don't remember, the Seattle Commons was a plan to create a four or five (or more) square ...

Posted Tue, Feb 17, 5:24 p.m.

PJS I will concede that everything in the following sentence was a bit hyperbolic: "They created a magical bubble economy based on financial hocus pocus and wishful thinking even more ludicrous than the dot com bubble." My only defense is that it's fun to use the words Hocus Pocus. It ...

Posted Tue, Feb 17, 12:20 p.m.

PJS What did I say that seemed like Irrational Bush Hatred? George Bush ran up large deficits. He was an advocate for reducing government regulation - or red tape as he called it. I admit that "magical bubble economy" is a bit over the top, but otherwise I think what ...

Posted Mon, Feb 16, 4:16 p.m.

Seattle Observer, GW Bush and the Republican congress have already saddled us with debt that will last generations. They ran massive deficits - fiscal stimulus if you will - throughout Bush's two terms. They created a magical bubble economy based on financial hocus pocus and wishful thinking even more ludicrous ...

Posted Wed, Dec 10, 8:31 a.m.

Knute, I understand that the Nixon comparison comes to mind because of the release of the new film, and because he is the most recent "worst" president. However, I think that better comparisons may be presidents Buchanan or Harding. Especially Harding. The hard thing about Nixon is that, for all ...

Posted Sun, Nov 9, 3:54 p.m.

LimitGovGuy, The problem is that the Washington State GOP has tried to run extremely conservative governor candidates fairly recently. Ellen Craswell was the very definition of an extremely conservative candidate. She was an enormous contrast to Gary Locke. She lost horribly. John Carlson also provided a contrast to Gary Locke. ...

Posted Wed, Sep 3, 9:48 a.m.

Is One Of Us Sufficient?: The past eight years of Conservative Republican governance have been a disaster. Over and over again in the justice department, in NASA, in the department of energy and FEMA people were promoted to positions they were unsuited for and unqualified for because they were "one ...