Did Greyhound bounce you for masturbation again?

Tell every legislator you meet “We want RTID.” RTID causes Seattle (mostly) taxpayers to pay billions over an indefinite number of decades to offset the way ST has not be spending in line with the “subarea equity” spending rules it has to operate under.

See, you “North King County” residents all are the recipients of too much ST tax money (light rail). You’ve gotten too much transit, under ST’s formula.

To get us (see sig.) what ST promised US under the subarea equity formula in exchange for the big taxes we reluctantly have been coughing up to ST over the past decade, we have RTID! RTID is OUR payback. It would send billions of taxes (mostly from Seattle) to Bellevue. Actually, to the “east side,” for roads (I-405, etc.).

RTID evens out subarea equity deficits under ST’s requirements. Those were caused by how ST is bent on spending the region-wide taxes it collects. Get over it. Whatever else you do in Olympia: RTID is sacrosanct!!!

Josh, please forgive me, as I think your wanting to go down to Olympia with a riding buddy to cover this is cool and, well, kinda cute..

But Strangerdanger@1 just gave me a LOL attack with that comment.

Josh, do you mind if I bring my dog in the car?

Pedersen's bill includes this amendment:

(2) If the vacant office was held by a director elected by
9 ((holders of one or more authorized classes or series of shares)) a
10 voting group of shareholders, only the holders of ((those classes or
11 series of)) shares of that voting group are entitled to vote to fill
12 the vacancy, if it is filled by the shareholders, and only the
13 directors elected by that voting group are entitled to fill the vacancy
14 if it is filled by the directors.



Material in parentheses is replaced by new material.

Perhaps this would restrict voting for a vacancy on the board of the combined firm to shareholders from only one of the original firms, and thus be important in determining who controls the combined company. Interesting.

StrangerDanger @ #1,
You're getting ... weird, and should consider going cold turkey on posting.

Rodrigo @ #5,
I knew it!

Oh, and Matthew @ #3,
No worries.

It's hard to imagine why Jamie wouldn't return your calls. Oh well, if I want the inside political scoop from Hugh Foskett or Stephanie Pure, I know I can always turn to The Stranger.

Some friendly advice: I've noticed you guys like to burn bridges with politicians (e.g., Jamie, the mayor), thereby forfeiting any influence you might have had with them. Sure, you may get a cheap laugh out of it and reaffirm your reputation as a rag for snot-nosed punks. But if you actually aspire to be a "news"paper, let alone Seattle's only "news"paper, you might want to rethink this strategy.

Sean: Media organs have no "influence" to "forfeit" with our politicians. Now, unions - THEY have influence!

You should check into a vanpool, Josh... it's the only thing that made my commute to Oly palatable when I was working down there. Surely there's one that leaves from Capitol Hill.

Josh,

Might I suggest the Intercity Transit Route #603. You can take Sound Transit to the Tacoma Dome, and transfer to it.

http://www.intercitytransit.com/page.cfm?id=routeExpress

I vote for Sean @7

Pedersen is scum. He was one of the main designers of the Monorail Project's $11 billion debt plan. He wanted that kind of financing because his law firm would have made a big cut right off the top based on how much bonds were sold.

Should've voted Sherman.

Pederson stinks. His assumption that us gays were supposed to vote for him because he also is a gay, makes me sick. Blecch.

sean (atseven) +1

#s 7, 11 & 15: The Stranger put Pedersen in their Final Three back in September. How is that burning bridges?

Yeah, he gets slogged on Slog, but the paper itself barely mentioned his ties to corporate lobbyists. He was just the cute little gay guy. Harmless.

If anything The Stranger is somewhat culpable for this wolf in sheep's clothing making it into the House.

But the stranger was instrumental in blowing the 43rd vote by endorsing an underdog candidate instead of the someone who could beat Pederson. To complain that the corporate hack you helped into office is passing bills on behalf of his firm seems ah, well... nevermind.

Far too many news outlets are obsessed with maintaining their connections/access to politicians. So, they ask nothing but softball questions and never criticize. Thanks to their chickenshit attitude most of the press corps became a cheerleading squad for a bullshit war.

Well then Morgan, I'm sorry for bringing the bill to the public's attention. I'll be quiet about it now...

Look, our ed board thought Stephanie Pure was the best candidate. We endorsed her. Was it a tactical error? Maybe. But we hotly debated all that stuff, voted on it, and Pure won a majority.

Exactly, and the politicians need the press more than the press need the politicians. We have no use for more media sycophants.

Josh, I'm really glad you're keeping an eye on Perderson, I was just disappointed that he won, it was a real chance to get someone who cares about our city more than corporate interests into office. I was falsely optimistic and so I took the loss kinda hard, it took a few martinis to set me straight. Speaking of which, we should get one soon.

Frankly we all just thought you had the hots for Pure. She is pretty hot, and cool, and smart, and she would have been my first choice too had I been confident that Pederson wouldn't win.

Ms. Pure is surely a hottie.
But remember, I'm not the only one on the Stranger's ed board. We've got some gays, and Sherman was pretty hot too!

Corporate hacks are not hot. eew grody.

The SECB advanced the two least-qualified candidates into their final three. Jim Street was the only decent choice you made in this race. That was telling to me, and I now take your candidate endorsements for what they are -- a cult of personality.

Oh, come on Doug, they rarely get it wrong. Jim Street was a very good choice, but so was Pure aside from the numbers game. And we all know Dan-who-endorsed-the-war doesn't always have the sharpest political chops, but the Santorum campaign was flat-out brilliant. Don't discount the entire SECB. And for the love of all things democratic, do your own research when you vote. It's your civic duty.

When will Pedersen's name appear on the legislature's roster webpage and when will he have his own House homepage? His committee assignments and bills are posted but otherwise you wouldn't know he's in the House. Not much opportunity for constituent comment and questions.

I've yet to hear a lucid, logical and articulate argument about why Jamie Pedersen is so terrible. The high minded rants on slog and the print ed just foam at the mouth over and over that Pedersen sux. Sure he's corporate, but what else?

I don't know him and I don't live in the 43rd district so I didn't vote for him, but I did read an interview with him in the SGN after the election where he said that his legislative priorities are going to be transportation, affordable health care and marriage equality.

What exactly is the problem?

Josh -

If you are heading down to Olympia to cover the session for the Stranger - shouldn't THEY be picking up your travel costs?

I know you work on a shoe string over there - but c'mon...this does seem to be a work-related expense to me.

Do you plan on splitting your mileage reimbursement with your travel partner?

the problem, 28, is that the stranger echo chamber prattles on and on about the Great Satan of the moment. they added pedersen because you can only say "fuck the mayor" in so many ways before it ceases to satisfy.

Voting for or endorsing Pure was like voting for Nader. Hopefully someday kids will learn how politics work. Sometimes voting for the person the alternative rag's political writers are good friend's with only gets the worst candidate elected. Sherman definitely wouldn't be the corporate shill Pedersen is already proving to be.

Evidence, Frank?

If there's dirt, let's hear it.

And please refer to # 28.

Andrew - you can judge a politician's priorities by what they do first, not by what they say in the press. Jamie got to Olympia and got right to work on what?

The knock on Jamie is that he is nothing but a ladder climbing corporate attorney working for an ethically challenged law firm (ties to Abramoff, etc, etc) who will serve that firm's interests in the legislature. That's not my take, but it was the view of many. I'm willing to give Jamie a chance, but I also believe he just made at best a very poor PR move by his first action. If this is his answer to the questions about him, well, it is a sad answer.

Where is Pedersen on the new Liquor laws banning all ages shows? What's his transportation plan? Where's his bill on health care? He is one of the only house members who can't doesn't have his info out to the public. But I bet the lobbyists at PG&E have it.

For sure, Street would have been right now fighting the liquor board, and proposing some transportation options and environmental legislation or help with education and marginalized youth. But we got Jamie and his Republican co-sponsored corporate bill that has to do with what?. Frank made a good point about this.

Meinert,

Still pure conjecture, but better. This is, after all, the first week of his first term. All I'm saying is that we should just give him a chance and cut out the childish sniping. We'll know more by the end of the term.

I'm all for giving him a chance, I just wish he would be open to working on things that effect his district like the proposed liquor law regulations doing away with all ages shows. So far no response from him, though lots of other electeds at all levels have made the time to get in volved. Where's Jamie? He seems to be dong exactly what his critics said he would be. I certainly hope his critics are wrong, but so far Jamie's actions are proving otherwise.

PS - it's the Stranger Slog. It's all about childish sniping. Jamie and his fans should expect it, hell, Jamie won the election because of it. That's why making this his first bill seems especially stupid.

@7,12 - true. But remember everyone broke 10 percent, which is unusual in such a large multi-candidate primary, which means the district itself was very split.

Democracy's like that. Which is why our tax dollars go to support Iran maintaining Shiite control of Iraq right now.

@23 - you are correct, Stephanie rocks.

Some of you kids should go back to school and take another course on Civics.

First, the citizen Legislature meets annually on the second Monday in January. Otherwise known as January 8th this year. That is why the state has not finalized websites, etc. for the new members, including Ed Murray moving to the Senate from the House.

In addition, Jamie's bill was "pre-filed". Big deal, maybe that bill has been drafted for quite awhile and is ready to go so he filed it. Other bills presumably are being worked behind the scenes for co-sponsors, changes, etc. and will be introduced AFTER the session actually begins.

Meinert,

I have no idea why Ol' Boss Hog Nickels is hell bent on making Seattle America's largest Footloose town, but it sounds like this is an issue that City Council will have to handle since it's their job to check and double deck the Mayor.

I've been really impressed with the Council communications wise. Every time I've e-mailed them, I've gotten a personal response from someone.

Second Keshmeshi @ 18. If you want ass-kiss, read the dailies.

How do we know this bill is about some corporate kickback to Pedersen's firm? Was that ever explained?

I'm not sure we can call Pedersen a corporate sell-out until we know what the hell the bill he filed actually does.

Preston Gates, and Pedersen in particular, were key players in the monorail debacle. Once the initial taxes started coming in 30% too low, Pedersen started work on revising the financing projections. Instead of the 23 years of taxes, there would need to be 50 (or more) years of taxes. Instead of $1.7 billion total (including finance charges), there would need to be $11.6 billion or so total. Instead of advising the board to come clean, he and his partners told them to keep silent. They caused this fiasco to drag out for two and a half useless years. That stunt cost this city $225 million in wasted taxes. SMP made PG&E millions, and Jamie got fat bonuses, but it screwed people out of money. The fact that he designed a financing plan for a public project in which five dollars would have gone to bondholders for every one that went to construction and train purchases demonstrates he is a selfish, callous knob when it comes to acting as a steward of public money. Think he’ll be a strong advocate for prudent transportation spending? BWAHAHAHAHA! Not a chance. He’s all about keeping secrets and making his partners big money.

Why is this the first that we're hearing that Jamie Pedersen wrote the monorail's financing plan? I thought Joel Horn and other SMP board members were responsible? Links? Anyone?

P.S. Jesus, you'd think Jamie Pedersen was Capitol Hill's own Saddam given the vitriol. He used chemical weapons against his own people at the Cuff!!! What about the children!!!

I think Josh's attack at the very simple question @1 shows nothing, if not guilt.

“Why is this the first that we're hearing that Jamie Pedersen wrote the monorail's financing plan?”

Because the dailies are paid well to not report on the nature and development of local taxing practices.

Maybe he's upset that you got his firm's name wrong. It's not called Preston Gates & Ellis any more. It's now known as Kirkpatrick & Lockhart Preston Gates Ellis. Or by its gangsta' name K & L Gates. Also, they are all switching emails to klgates.com, so maybe something was lost in the move.

http://www.klgates.com/Home.aspx