Island Guardian

Thursday, February 17th

Lurching Toward Aspenization

At a Forum focusing on "Alternative Strategies" to control growth the new Commissioners examined schemes that have been unsuccessful in Aspen and Nantucket. These ideas include caps on building permits, point systems and lottery for issuing permits, impact fees, and limiting use of vehicles on island roads. These proposals sound familiar because they were successfully promoted in last fall¹s political campaigns. Why consider failed no-growth policies when studies show that the same type of policies in our current plan put us on a collision course with "Aspenization"?

No-growth policies have created havoc in every community where they have been tried. Artificial limits on growth can be devastating to our fragile economy and will always create tremendous barriers to affordable housing.

Open space programs limit growth but the cost is high. It should be obvious by now that in a small county you cannot take large amounts of land off the market without driving up the price of the remaining land. There are unintended consequences to these well-intentioned programs. They have almost eliminated the possibility of affordable housing, shifted property taxes, causing the very problems we¹ve tried to avoid (Aspenization). This is a huge price to pay.

Politicians are not willing to solve the problem by simply stopping what they have been doing to create the problem. Instead, they come up with new programs that ignore the fundamental issues. Continuing to tinker with experimental no-growth schemes is not the answer.

Instead, they should reexamine these underlying problems that were created by no-growth policies in the existing Comprehensive Plan. An economy lacking in steady year-round employment at good wages. Planning which discourages economic development by failing to provide adequate Rural General Use areas for business, oppressive regulation that dramatically increases the cost of building even modest homes. Planning which fails to provide enough land where affordable lots and homes are permitted. And skyrocketing property taxes.

Perhaps the focus of "Alternative Strategies" should include caution with regard to our economy. When you are heading in the wrong direction stop. Look at the map and figure out how to find the way again.

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Friday, February 4th

All Journalism is opinion

The CBS scandal is proof of this. Ever since Woodward and Bernstein brought down a sitting president journalists have been asking, "How can we top that?" Dan Rather tried. He did what any objective reporter would have done. He tried to influence an election for leader of the free world with forged documents. What journalist wouldn¹t want to destroy a President? I guess he wanted to give it one more shot before he retired.

The media is full of non-objective crusaders wearing blinders. What they report is a lot like news or news-ish, but their opinions still come through. After all they get to choose the subject, get the answers they want and edit out what they don¹t want. What we watch is all packaged up for us. Just like a fish with a hook in its mouth the media leads us around, finally netting and filleting us. They overwhelm the news consumer with their own opinions. Then they take a poll.

Polls are not news stories but journalists really believe that they are. They get regurgitated feedback after broadcasting a story for weeks and then taking a poll about that story. That is bias.

Most journalists will deny that they interject their opinions in the news. They are either blind to their own flaws or they assume that their audience is made up of people that will never notice bias even if it popped up in their face like opening a children¹s¹ book. They can¹t help themselves.

Everywhere we go we bring our personal baggage along with us. In the suitcase we have a set of values, personal tastes and preferences that filter our interpretations of events. We live in a world where even the language is spiked with bias. We see the world through spectacles with our own prescription lenses that act as a filter for what is seen. We can¹t help it that we are biased. But I have some solutions to this problem.

There should be stringent guidelines for reporting the news. They should teach them in every school of journalism (especially at CBS). Admission should require each student to write an essay on why they want to change the world. Just reporting events is too dull. What we need are journalists who uncover scandals by getting to the source of rumors and accusations using intuition. Reporters must be guided by really strong hunches. Stories must then be corroborated by at least two people with very powerful instinctive gut feelings.

We can also use spy technology to make sure what we hear is true. I suggest we hook Dan Rather up to a lie detector while he does the news. If he says anything inaccurate a buzzer goes off and it keeps beeping with every false word.
Dan has not really learned from past mistakes. As this recent letter home from a brave Marine in harm¹s way describes:

"Elections right around the corner here. Everything is going very well (except for the visit we just had from Dan Rather and his freakin' entourage from hell). A more pompous (but scared and nervous) bunch of individuals I have never met before. Actually, keep your eyes out for Rather's report on our company in Lutufiyah (Golf Company, 2nd Bn, 24th Marines from Madison, Wisconsin). Should be interesting. The report should air on 60 Minutes II on Wednesday night your time, if somebody could tape it for me. I would really like to see what they keep in the report and what they edit out. Rather, that lowlife clown, kept trying to bait my young Marines with loaded questions and they kept putting it right back in his face. Best part was when he asked one of the Marines why they don't like the media. The answer he got was, "that you idiots make the terrorists look like giants whenever they explode a bomb. They're not; they're nothing but a bunch of cowards. But they do know that you guys in the press will eventually beat down public opinion with your constant focus on only the negative." Rather just looked at these guys with a scrunched up face, and did not give an answer back. I think he was ready to leave the "Mad Ghosts" area as soon as he could. Funny part, none of us were really sad to see him and his traveling circus hit the road.

Dan still has a few more months before he retires to get Bush. I guess he is going all out now. Once he gets in touch with his instinctive gut feelings he may have a story. But now we know it will only be one mans¹ opinion.

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Tuesday, February 1st

Things Change But Stay The Same.

Reflections on the Republican Convention: Things change but stay the same. There were many new faces at the State Convention. All three faces in the San Juan County contingent were spanking fresh. John Evans, Dixie Lee DuCote', and yours truly, were your faithful representatives. We expected change. We did not know if change would come like a tidal wave or a slow moving glacier. This time it was the latter.
On the first night all three of us were undecided about who should lead the party. We were wined and dined by Rose Strong in her hospitality suite. Her son Mack the Fullback was there with another Seahawk player. Mack laughed when I asked if Rose was a "chunky soup" mom. Rose had live music and plenty of food. Chris Vance had a packed hospitality room and ran out of food. Then we went to the mysterious back room. A big debate was advertised to take place there sponsored by the "Regan Wing".
The "Regan Wing" is a newly formed group of conservatives. Their literature had a big photo of "The Gipper" and a list of things they stand for. I agreed with all the listed issues on the brochure. Why were they so different from the rest of us that they needed their own wing? I was about to find out.
The back room was where we found the disgruntled and whiney party members. Many of their complaints were valid. Some were ticked off because they were unsuccessful candidates left to swing in the breeze because Chris Vance did not support their campaigns when they needed him. Some disliked his statements to the press (there were many examples). He was criticized for admitting that some districts are not winnable for Republicans and should not be funded by the party. Some blamed him for screwing up the recount in the early days after the election. Many were unhappy with Chris because Bush got fewer Washingtonian votes in 2004 than in the 2000 election. Republicans lost seats in the State House and Senate. His support of the 11th commandment (thou shalt not criticize thy Republican opponent) made some people mad. However, many folks broke the 11th commandment by bashing Vance on Friday night.
I learned that the "Regan Wing" was different because they did not like Chris Vance. In fact they were down right hostile to Chris. When Mr. Vance appeared at the podium they looked like they wanted to lynch him. Luckily there was some second amendment buffs with bulges in their coats. The godfather of Island County showed us his concealed weapon permit and his NRA card. He had one card in each hand and he knew how to use ‘em. (By the way, we elected him; Andy Valrosa and Yvonne Goldsmith to the executive board from district 2). Things heated up when our own John Evans asked the 3 candidates how they intended to win elections. The Regan Wing nut guy who said he rented the room grabbed the microphone and went on a rant about Vance. John Evans, a veteran of raucous San Juan County politics stood firm and told him to go sit down and let the candidates debate his question. The crowd was tense and some began to walk out. Eventually the jerk sat down and let the debate roll on. It turned into a debacle with Vance defending himself against his critics. Mark Hulst and Rose Strong didn't get to say much.
The convention delegates don't just applaud. They give everything a standing ovation. I have always thought you saved the standing-up part for spectacular approval of something. Perhaps it was just because we were in Seattle and everyone was hopped-up on Starbucks. But the speech by Rose Strong was amazing. It was given the most applause of any speech all weekend. I got goose bumps. Everyone jumped up and cheered.
We are blessed that we had three very good choices for leader of the party. Rose Strong had the passion, experience, and, in my opinion, everything it would take to turn the urban areas of our state from blue to red. She had real charisma compared to a leader that just follows the rules. She was Motown compared to Kenny G. A "stone soul picnic" compared to a "Brie and Chablis party". She received 22 votes (including mine). Mark Hulst was another excellent choice. He promised disciplined leadership, not just a promise to maintain the status quo. He is a businessman with a passion for politics, not a career politician. He got 24 votes. Chris Vance was voted in as Chair with 66 votes. I wonder if we should have checked King County's ballots against felon and death certificate databases just to be sure he won honestly. His continuing leadership will not change.
How did he win by such a large majority? His incumbency was a real advantage. Few were willing to change party leaders with the race for governor still unresolved. However, nothing was more important for Chris than his endorsement by Dino Rossi. The convention went wild when Dino came to speak at lunch. He has rock star status among the delegates. Women reached to hug him and swooned. He was virtually mobbed by the ordinarily subdued conservative crowd. It was like watching the teenagers at one of the early Beatle's concerts. Dino's endorsement was the obvious reason why Chris won.
I was inspired by the convention and convinced that we need to work harder. We need to continue to build the local party. We need to support Chris Vance in his effort to get a re-vote for Dino. We have strong local leadership. We need to win elections. With your support we can do it. Even though things look the same that doesn't mean we can't change them for the better.

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