Mere Coincidence Or Divine Retribution?

If you live in King County, Washington, you may have seen that some Metro buses are carrying a very special Christmas message. Just as they did last year, with their obnoxious display at the State Capitol, the Freedom From Religion Foundation has chosen a sort of oafish insensitivity over reason as a means to make their statement of faith. Why else would they choose to paraphrase much-loved defense of the faith and joy inherent in the Christmas season, if not to offend Christians?

Don’t Underestimate The Generosity Of Your Neighbors

Last Thursday evening, I watched a special meeting of the King County Budget and Fiscal Management Committee. Nothing other than previously undiagnosed masochism could explain this bizarre behavior. As near as I could tell, the “special meeting” consisted of representatives from program after program appearing before the Committee members to plead that funding for their program be included in the King County budget.

No Boundaries

Two troubling stories have surfaced in the last two days with regard to Dow Constantine and the race for King County Executive. On the surface, the stories appear to be unrelated, but there is a common thread. So what’s the common thread here? It appears that Dow Constantine doesn’t recognize boundaries.

Seattle Times Files Legal Challenge

Bryan Myrick at Red County just broke this news:
…[T]he Seattle Times has filed a motion with King County Superior Court in challenge to the restraining order placed Wednesday on documents pursuant to a public records request by Keith Ervin of The Seattle Times in mid-October. Ervin’s request was for all documents that contained information about [...]

Is Dow Constantine Having a “David Letterman” Moment?

Okay, wow. When I called Dow Constantine a smarmy politician I was just referring to his apparent level of comfort with lying about Council colleague Kathy Lambert. It appears there’s so much more. Allegations have surfaced that Constantine has been accused of sexually harassing a County employee.

Smarmy Politician, Lying Loser Or Both?

The Seattle Times hosted an online Q&A session yesterday with King County Executive candidate, Dow Constantine. I’ll admit that the question I most wanted to ask was, “Why are you such a smarmy jerk,” but the site cautioned that personal attacks weren’t allowed. Today’s news (here, here and here), however, raises the question again.

In A Field Cleared of Liberal Competition, Constantine Still Hasn’t Closed The Deal

Susan Hutchison leads Dow Constantine in the King County Executive race, 47% to 44%, not that this information would be available to you if the Seattle Times were your primary source of local news; a search of their website conducted this morning finds no mention of the King5/SurveyUSA poll conducted September 1st through 3rd.

The Seattle P-I does a bit better; they report the results, but with the rather misleading headline, “Poll: Constantine closes gap on Hutchison in exec’s race.”

Could King County Possibly Be Doing Something Right?

Despite the concerns I voiced here, Sherrill Huff retained her position as Director of Elections for King County. In a move that initially allays some of those concerns, Huff has hired Evelyn Arnold as her Superintendent of Elections. Ms. Arnold is a CPA and has served as the Chelan County Auditor since 1990.
Arnold first came [...]

More Corruption In King County

From the Seattle Times on Saturday, April 11:
“An eight-member jury ruled in U.S. District Court in Seattle Wednesday that Roads Division Manager Linda Dougherty and Roads Planning Section Manager Jennifer Lindwall took action against [Ho-Chuan Chen and Hossein Barahimi] in retaliation for their dissent.”
Washington residents will find nothing unusual in yet another tale of [...]