During the Enron era, I read the Wall Street Journal for the crime news -- accounts of high-flying CEOs and companies brought low by scandal. Now I read it for drama.

As you would expect, the Bible of Wall Street is covering America's biggest financial crisis since the Depression with an all-hands-on-deck sense of urgency and thoroughness. In retirement, I have time to devour it all every morning.

During the September week that Morgan Stanley and AIG both disappeared, the Journal's page ran two-line banner headlines -- what I call "end of the world" headlines -- on four of the five weekdays.

Another end-of-the world headline appeared Monday:

"Bailout Plan Rejected, Markets Plunge,
Forcing New Scramble to Solve Crisis"

Historic stuff. And some superb and provocative commentary has shown up on the Journal's oped pages. A worthy example is economist Judy Shelton's Monday oped headlined, "Loose Money and the Roots of the Crisis."

The root of the current crisis, Shelton declares, is funny money.

=> Read more!

U.S. Reps. Adam Smith of the 9th District and Dave Reichert of the 8th District stopped by today, fresh from yesterday's momentous House defeat on the $700 billion economic rescue plan.

Smith was a yea vote; Reichert a nay.

Smith said the bill was tainted the moment it got packaged as a "Wall Street bailout."

"This is not a Wall Street bailout," he said. "It's a bailout of our credit system."

Smith said his office was deluged with protests against the bill: "For every 500 calls we got against it, we got one in favor."

On that point, Reichert agreed. His office got about 2,500 emails and calls on the issue, he said, and the sentiment was "overwhelmingly no."

=> Read more!

Transportation dollars are hard to come by these days. We hope House Speaker Frank Chopp isn’t in no-dissent-allowed mode on his proposal for a very expensive box for Alaskan Way along Seattle’s waterfront.

We recommend voters support seven tax increases for fire and emergency medical services, as well as the proposed annexation of the Puyallup fire department into Central Pierce Fire and Rescue.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

If John McCain is elected president, what are the chances that he would need to be replaced by Vice President Sarah Palin?

According to the Associated Press, an Atlanta company that specializes in estimating life and health expectancy says there's a 1 in 4 chance that Palin would need to replace McCain as president due to death or bad health – if he's elected to a second term. McCain, 72, has a "health expectancy" of 8.4 more years, compared to 21.9 years for Barack Obama, who is 47.

Factors that went into McCain's health profile include his history of skin cancer (three melanomas), degenerative arthritis from his Vietnam war injuries, moderately high cholesterol, mild vertigo and the fact that he is a former smoker who quit in 1980. For Obama, the biggest health threat is that he's a smoker. Although he has said he's trying to quit, he's not considered a former smoker until he's been off tobacco for 12 months.

The upshot is: Actuarially speaking, McCain's choice of Palin is more important than Obama's choice of Biden because she has a better chance of moving up the chain of command.

We let Democrats off the hook too easily today in our editorial on the U.S. House of Representatives' rejection of an economic rescue plan yesterday. A majority of House Republicans did vote against the plan – but so did 40 percent of House Democrats. The failure to address the financial crisis was thoroughly bipartisan.

Some of the lawmakers were voting their conscience, but many have simply been spooked by their constituents' anger about the plan. It could turn out to be a national tragedy that this decision is being made so close to the election. And a shame that so many politicians – right on up to Nancy Pelosi – are still exploiting the crisis to score partisan points.

There are times when elected representatives just have to buck public sentiment – and risk losing their seats – to do what's best for the country. Let's hope we see a few more profiles in courage when the bill comes up again later this week.

If you liked the lead editorial cartoon today (T-Rex terrorizing the economy), here's another one from the same cartoonist, Scott Stantis of the Birmingham (Ala.) News.

Book recommendation: "The Trillion Dollar Meltdown: Easy Money, High Rollers and the Great Credit Crash" by Charles Morris.

This was published early this year, but it presents the whole cast of villains and idiots behind the present Wall Street disaster: Pirates, swindlers, shills, evil geniuses, sophisticated dupes, predatory mathematicians.

A great line: "As a general rule, only the very smartest people can make truly catastrophic mistakes."

. . . Barack Obama in a landslide.

We've gotten some criticism from Republicans for running more pro-Obama letters than ones for John McCain. But this morning's e-mail shows why that sometimes happens.

Naturally, we want to run some letters Tuesday about the Friday night debate. But of the 14 debate-related letters we've received, not a single one was pro-McCain.

We'll run a few of the pro-Obama letters Tuesday, but if we ran all 14, we'd catch all sorts of heat from McCain supporters.

As it is, we'll probably get some calls complaining that we didn't run any pro-McCain letters. But we can't run 'em if we don't get 'em.

The new bailout compromise looks a lot better than Henry Paulson’s origianl proposal. For one thing, there’s real oversight of Treasury’s actions, and the public has some chance of getting much of its money back when the “illiquid assets” can finally be sold down the road.

Churches have every right to endorse candidates; they just don’t have any right to both endorse candidates and enjoy tax exempt status. The tax exemption applies across the board to nonprofits, religious or not, on condition they not act like taxpayer-subsidized political action groups. Letting churches be the exception would raise separation issues.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Another confession to make: Near the back door at home I counted five of those reusable shopping bags that we're supposed to be using instead of disposable plastic bags.

That doesn't count the four in our cars and several cloth shopping bags we've got around the house somewhere. Are we using them like we're supposed to? Not hardly.

There's a problem here: In our household, we're collecting giveaway reusable shopping bags faster than we're using them. We can't seem to just say no. I picked up two more last week when they were handed out as giveaways along with coffee mugs and pens.

Tacoma Public Utilities, for instance, is giving away green bags branded as "green" bags. They carry the slogan, "Conservation: A step towards green."

A Wall Street Journal article on Friday confirmed my suspicions: These bags are a fad, and like a lot of other supposedly eco-friendly initiatives, closer inspection reveals that they aren't as green as they may seem.

Odds are that any free or cheap reusuable bag you get is made in China from non-woven polypropylene, a form of plastic, the Journal reports, "requires about 28 times as much energy to produce as the plastic used in standard disposable bags and eight times as much as a paper sack."

Plus, this type of bag takes far longer to degrade in a landfill than the ubiquitous two-handled plastic bag. And only a very small minority of shoppers faithfully bring reusable bags with them to the store.

Give yourself "greenie points" if you're actually using reusable shopping bags on a consistent basis. But human nature being what it is, flooding the landscape with reusuable shopping bags isn't going to do much good.

Unless, or course, government applies its heavy hand. San Francisco has banned plastic bags from supermarkets and chain drug stores. Seattle this year imposed a 20-cents-a-bag tax on plastic bags, but opponents have forced a public vote some time next year.

To quote a noted philosopher, Kermit the Frog, "It isn't easy being green."

I recently had a chance to catch up with Tacoma's poet laureate, University of Puget Sound prof Bill Kupinse (who graced one of our last Insight section covers).

He mentioned that NPR affiliate KXOT asked him a while back to record poems about Tacoma. Three of them were recorded on location at Point Defiance, the Cushman substation and the Ruston Way waterfront.

The links above will take you to the MP3 files. Below is a snippet of "Point Defiance." Listen to the audio to get the full effect.

When I visit her, I find
a sea widow scanning the bay,
hair of braided epiphytes
askew, the blast of wind
across the bay
her keening.

Footpaths cross her heart:
ligatures suture
rags of tissue, strain
against arrhythmia.

In her secret embrasure
anomalous snow convenes,
fistfuls of confetti, forgotten
or illswept. Here
breathing calms.

I may be retired, but I'm still busy on the Tacoma breakfast and lunch fundraiser circuit.

The biggest one last week was the Cascade Land Conservancy's biannual Pierce County awards luncheon, which drew well over 600 public officials, business leaders and other community members.

One of Pierce County's most dedicated environmentalists, Thelma Gilmur, received the CLC's Helen Engle Lifetime Achievement Award.

Among other things, Gilmur led successful efforts to preserve the Snake Lake and China Lake natural areas in Tacoma. Engle, a legendary figure in local environmental circles, was on hand to present the award to her fellow Tahoma Audubon Society stalwart.

Other award winners:

THE CASCADE AGENDA LEADERSHIP AWARD: The Broadway Center for the Performing Arts for their guidance and leadership in the growth of the arts community in Downtown Tacoma.

THE COMMUNITY SERVICE AWARD: Al Jordan for his long-standing commitment to protect and conserve Pierce County’s natural areas.

THE LAND STEWARDSHIP AWARD: The Nature Conservancy and Fort Lewis for their continuing partnership, which has helped restore over 15,000 acres of rare prairie habitat on the extensive army base in Pierce County.

THE INNOVATIVE CONSERVATION PROJECT AWARD: The South Puget Sound Salmon Enhancement Group for their continuing success in restoring degraded salmon habitat in South Puget Sound.

THE NEW DIRECTIONS FOR LIVABLE COMMUNITIES AWARD: The Nisqually Land Trust for their commitment and success in the Mt. Rainier Gateway Initiative.

It's 9:29, and as soon as I post this, I'm outta here.
I enjoyed tonight's presidential debate and thought both men did a good job. Makes me more comfortable with whichever one wins.

Here's our editorial on the debate that will run Saturday.

Candidates come out swinging, play to a tie

Barack Obama and John McCain come off as engaged, knowledgeable and more than willing to mix it up.

Neither presidential candidate hit a home run in Friday night’s debate, but neither struck out either.

Democrat Barack Obama and Republican John McCain accomplished what each needed to do. Obama had to show he’s comfortable with foreign affairs, that he could handle America’s security threats with resolve. McCain needed to at least hold his own on economic issues – by his own admission not his strongest suit – and not lose his cool.

Obama needed to link McCain with the Bush administration as much as possible, and McCain needed to paint Obama as just another tax-and-spend liberal.

Missions accomplished.

=> Read more!

This editorial will appear in Sunday's paper.

The titanic collapse of Seattle-based Washington Mutual is more proof that the U.S. government must come up with a convincing strategy to rescue the financial sector.

It also illustrates why the public – now angry over the idea of a bailout – has so much at stake in a a rescue. The real victims of inaction are likely to be the little guys, not the big guys.

=> Read more!

The presidential debate's on for 6 p.m. tonight. For those of you who will be watching near a computer, head to the FactCheck Wire, where Annenberg Public Policy Center watchdogs will be doing their best to debunk misleading claims and unravel sound bites as the debate unfolds.

Saturday: Our take on the first presidential debate.

Sunday: The freezing of the credit market and Washington Mutual’s huge collapse – forced by a panicked run on deposits – shows how the financial crisis could devastate ordinary folks. Unpopular as it is, federal intervention is crucial.

Monday: Tacoma’s complaint-driven sidewalk repair program is a hit-and-miss approach that's bad for pedestrians and property owners alike.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Last month, we bemoaned the slow-poke nature of the state's campaign watchdogs as a disservice to voters. But we'll give credit where credit is due.

For the first time since 2004, Public Disclosure Commission staffers this week short-circuited their own investigation to give commissioners a chance to review a complaint in a timely fashion. That decision was validated yesterday by a 4-1 vote to send apparent campaign finance violations by the Republican Party to the attorney general for review.

Letting complaints languish cuts both ways. It allows scurrilous accusations to fester and unfairly sway an election. And it permits actual violations to go unpunished until the race has already been won or lost.

Seattle's long and mostly fruitless struggle to settle on a plan for replacing the creaky Alaskan Way Viaduct took a new turn this week.

On his Crosscut website, David Brewster broke the news (and posted sketches) of House Speaker and Seattle Democrat Frank Chopp's own vision of how to do the job:

He would build a mega-structure where the Viaduct now stands, just as high and almost twice as wide. The two ground floors would be developed as commercial space all along the structure, except for portals at street crossings. Next level would be an enclosed highway, three lanes in each direction (maybe one lane each way for buses), with vent openings at each cross street cutting under the highway. Atop would be a park with splendid views of Elliott Bay, 90 feet wide and extending more than a mile from the Pike Place Market to South King Street. Lastly, surface traffic would be routed to the east of this megaduct and along Western Avenue, so the (rather narrow) promenade on the waterfront, alongside the docks, would be traffic- and (almost) noise-free.

As Brewster notes, Chopp's concept is "wildly unpopular" among the Seattle politicos who know about it, but Chopp is "wildly powerful" in Olympia. Stay tuned.

As the editorial writers were talking Thursday about the proposed bailout and the editorial we would run today, I suggested that I wanted to see some "perp walks" – big-money CEOs marched away in handcuffs.

Sound a little cold? That's nothing compared to what Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer proposes in a column that moved just before news of a tentative bailout deal was leaked Thursday. The column seems dated now, so it probably won't run. But his suggestion goes a bit farther than my perp walk idea.

(I'm guessing this is tongue in cheek, but with Krauthammer you never really know.)

What we need are a few exemplary hangings. Public hangings. On television.

Pick a few failed investment firms, lead their CEOs in chains through the canyons of Manhattan and give the mob satisfaction. Better still, precede the auto-da-fe — fire is highly telegenic — with 24-hour reality-TV coverage of their recantations, lamentations and final visits with the soon-to-be widowed.

The ratings would dwarf “American Idol,” and the ad revenue alone would make the perfect down payment on the $700 billion. Whatever it takes to clear our heads.

Washington's Democratic leaders are still making like they're serious about their preposterous legal challenge to Dino Rossi's "prefers GOP" designation on the November ballot.

They're suing Secretary of State Sam Reed for putting that label on the ballot. Two problems: The state's Top Two election law forbids Reed from interfering with a candidate's description of his party affiliation. And the lawsuit – if any judge took it seriously – would make a shambles of the election. Inevitably, some members of the military and other Washingtonians abroad would wind up unable to vote.

Here's a statement state Democratic Chairman Dwight Pelz released today:

Dino Rossi and the Republicans are cynically manipulating the men and women serving our nation overseas, using them as a smokescreen to justify their deceptive scheme to hide the fact Rossi is a Republican on the November ballot.

Our legal challenge to their deceptive practices does not and will never involve the challenging of any military ballot that has been mailed or returned. Rossi and the Republicans are simply lying – the motion we have filed is over the millions of ballots that have yet to be printed or mailed, and has nothing to do with the handful of military ballots that may have been sent at this point.

But the smokescreen here is the lawsuit itself. To take the partisan cast out of this, here's this morning's assessment of its possible consequences from Pierce County's Democratic auditor, Pat McCarthy, and her election manager, Lori Augino.

=> Read more!

Have you been paying attention to the financial news? Then try this news quiz:

Which government responded to a sharp market decline last week by "buying stock in listed state-controlled companies -- one of the boldest interventions in years by a government that had been trying to reduce its role in the market."

=> Read more!

John McCain and Barack Obama both did the right thing Thursday when they stepped away from their campaigns to jointly confer with President Bush about a gigantic federal buyout of distressed assets. It's essential that the remedy to this crisis wear a bipartisan face.

Young people are signing up like crazy to become registered voters. The question is, will they follow through and actually vote? They didn't do well in their first test – the state's August primary.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

A cheer went up at my house this morning when I spotted "Sidewalks might cost residents." It's about time.

I'm sorry if you are one of the folks getting hauled before the hearing examiner today to fix your sidewalks. I know times are tough and fixing the walkways in front of your house rank pretty low on the list of priorities when you're just trying to pay the mortgage. But the problem is that patching sidewalks has ranked too low on too many Tacomans' to-do lists for too long.

=> Read more!

It's easy to check out your voting history – since 2005, at least. Just go to the MyVote page on the Secretary of State's Web site.

You'll be asked to fill in your name and date of birth. When the next page comes up, click on "My Voting History." You can also check the history of anyone else, as long as you know their birth date.

That page also links you to the voter's pamphlet and contact information for local officials.

If Washington does indeed become the battleground state that the McCain campaign reportedly thinks it is, does that mean we'll be treated to the likes of this?

The assignment is simple: We are going to write letters to the editor and we are allowed to make up whatever we want – as long as it adds to the campaign. After today we are supposed to use our free moments at home to create a flow of fictional fan mail for McCain. "Your letters," says Phil Tuchman, "will be sent to our campaign offices in battle states. Ohio. Pennsylvania. Virginia. New Hampshire. There we'll place them in local newspapers."

"We will show your letters to our supporters in those states," explains Phil. "If they say: 'Yeah, he/she is right!' then we ask them to sign your letter. And then we send that letter to the local newspaper. That's how we send dozens of letters at once."

Our editorial today on the $700 billion bailout of America's financial sector demanded Congress act deliberatively to ensure adequate safeguards for taxpayers.

Transparency is one of the essential safeguards. Yesterday, a coalition of open government groups delivered letters to the members of Congress expressing concern with the level of secrecy under consideration.

While we hold many different views on the causes of and remedies for the current turmoil in financial markets, we are united in the belief that the legislation confers unacceptably broad powers upon the Treasury to conduct activities without transparency and accountability to the public. As written, the proposal would make any decisions by the Secretary non-reviewable by courts or administrative agencies – a certain prescription for the very kind of opacity that has contributed to the financial policy woes we face today. Equally troubling, public contracts associated with the proposal could be created outside of existing laws normally governing such actions.

Hat tip: Jason Mercier, Washington Policy Center

Surely the state Dems can come up with better issues in the governor’s campaign than stem cells and Sam Reed's decision – dictated by law – to list Dino Rossi on the ballot as as “preferring GOP.”

A city utility for street repairs in Tacoma is an idea worth exploring, but it’s no quick fix.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

We do get odd email here. For example:

FROM: Jocah
TO: Bankers, lawmakers, and all
SUBJECT: Two reminders and a request

There seems to be a mistake in the economy. Perhaps you can review the work of prophets in deciding what to do. These wise men healed the sick, blessed the poor, fed the hungry. I think they told US not to build big cities, and I know they told us not to horde up wealth for ourselves.

REMINDER: Comets are coming and it could be soon.

REMINDER: Interest-based banking (usury) is prohibited by eternal Mind.

REQUEST: Petro byproducts, like polystyrene foam, are quite difficult for the creature worlds. Can we please stop using petroleum fuel? Vegetable oil makes better fuel; we can grow it peaceably on our own soil.

Asalamu; peace; shalom.
Jocah

I was doing some research for an editorial on young voters when I stumbled across an interesting MySpace page.

Here's the profile:

Status: Married
Orientation: Straight
Hometown: Wenatchee
Zodiac sign: Capricorn
Children: Proud parent
Education: Post grad
Interests: Ballots that are filled in. Tight races. The civilized world’s most powerful weapon: the vote.

Who is this cool guy? Click "Read more" for the answer.

=> Read more!

The $700 billion mortgage buyout must carry plenty of regulations for the credit industry and plenty of safeguards for the taxpayer. And the execs who piled up mountains of bad paper should see their salaries cut dramatically.

So the thing wrong with collective bargaining, according to state union leaders, is that they’re only getting 2 percent raises a year? Welcome to economic reality, folks.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Pierce County Superior Court Judge Linda Lee's disappearance from the bench in mid-summer hasn't attracted much notice.

That's too bad, because her temporary departure was due to a historic event: Lee may be the first Washington Superior Court judge to have a baby while serving on the bench.

Lee was showing off baby Emily, born in July, at a recent social event when I asked her if that was a "first" for Pierce County.

"In the state!" she said. The judge followed up later by email:

Based on the inquiries I made, it appears that I am the first Superior Court judge to give birth to a child while serving on the bench. However, there have been Superior Court judges who have adopted babies while serving, and I know of one Municipal Court judge who has given birth while serving.

=> Read more!

Yesterday Pat O'Callahan blogged about Calvin Goings' candidate interview. What I found most interesting (besides, of course, Goings' six-point "Plan for Progress"), was that he said he'd lost almost 30 pounds doorbelling.

"I figure it's about 1 pound per 1,000 homes doorbelled," he said.

Who needs Jenny Craig? Just run for office and doorbell 30,000 homes!

Candidates aren't in the habit of publicly confessing their sins before an election. Some, in fact, take non-confession to extremes.

Pierce County Councilman Calvin Goings was in today to talk about his run for Pierce County executive. In the course of an impressive interview, he mentioned he had "challenges" as well as strengths ("challenges," not weaknesses, mind you).

We asked him what some of those "challenges" are. His responses:

• "My fault is maybe being too honest at times."

• "I have a vision."

• "I don't take no for an answer very well."

• "I expect a lot out of myself."

OK, I guess we can't expect a guy running for office to say:

• "I'm a pushover for anybody."

• "I expect very little out of myself, really."

• "Would someone tell me what this 'vision thing' is all about?"

• "I'm a prevaricating scoundrel. Do you believe me?"

The purchase of Sauro's Cleanarama site has to rank as one of the safer gambles in Tacoma's history of betting on environmental cleanup as a means to economic development. The 15,000-square-foot lot is one of the biggest known hurdles standing between the city and its efforts to keep one of its most important companies.

“We agree” from Miami Herald:

Not a moment too soon, the administration is remembering that there is a war in Afghanistan. The United States and its Western allies have a lot at stake in this war, but it's being lost to the resurgent Taliban.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

The Gregoire campaign has just alerted us that James Carville, denizen of political talk shows and author of the famed "It's the economy, stupid" political catchphrase, is coming to Seattle today for a Gregoire campaign event.

Carville, who masterminded Bill Clinton's successful presidential campaigns, is known for a thick-as-molassses Southern drawl. He makes "yes" a two-syllable word.

Which makes us wonder if an interpreter will be provided to translate his remarks in the Emerald City. And he's bound to say that it's the economy – or at least Wall Street – that's stupid right now.

Late last year, there was a lively dispute over what I called Pierce County's "felon trade balance."

A state law enacted in 2007 was designed to – among other things – stop the Department of Corrections from dumping an undue number of newly released felons into Pierce County. Instead, the DOC was supposed to release them to the county where they committed their first felony, unless there were compelling reasons not to (such as keeping a released rapist far from his victim).

Some disputed whether the DOC was actually following through. But state Sen. Mike Carrell, one of the law's champions (now running for re-election), came in Friday with updated numbers from the department.

If the numbers are right, Pierce County wound up importing 82 felons from other counties in the year than ran from August 2007 through last July. But these were more than offset by 87 felons who started their criminal careers in Pierce County and were released to some other locale. So we come up five ahead on the "trade balance."

Just breaking even would have been a huge improvement on getting scores of other counties' felons each year, as had been happening. Long term, there's another payoff. Say there's a released criminal from elsewhere who was already in Pierce County before the law took effect. If he re-offends – as a very high number do – he won't be sent back here; he'll be sent back to his original county.

So instead of being a dumping ground for the state's prisoners, Pierce County could start dumping felons back where they belong. It's a pleasant thought, anyway.

From John Sherffius of the Boulder (Colo.) Daily Camera

Our editorial Thursday warning Democrats to keep their paws off state's new rainy-day account – at least for now – went to press just hours before state economists released a new forecast bumping up the projected budget shortfall to $3.2 billion.

At least that's how most news outlets reported it. At the Washington Policy Center, Paul Guppy had another take:

What political reporters often neglect to tell us is that state tax collections will be $2.4 billion higher next year than in the current budget. State spending will go UP, just not as much as lawmakers were expecting. The most accurate way to report on the state budget is to say: "The latest forecast shows Olympia lawmakers will have $2.4 billion more to spend next year, instead of the $5.6 billion they were expecting, resulting in a $3.2 billion deficit compared to the planned increase in spending."

Sunday: The massive buyout of bad mortgage paper now proposed by the Bush administration and Fed harks back to the S&L crisis of the late 1980s. Except this amounts to a bailout of the entire U.S. financial system. The high rollers behind this debacle must be held accountable.

Monday: Despite the criticism, the urban village planned for Tacoma’s St. Helens district – including long needed new utilities – is a necessary part of the city’s renewal.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Hilarious: Palin and Biden hyping each other's debating prowess.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin said she expects a challenging debate next month when she faces a Democratic opponent who was elected to the Senate when she was 8 years old.

“Sen. (Joe) Biden has tremendous amount of experience,” Palin said in an interview scheduled to air Thursday on Fox News Channel’s “Hannity & Colmes.” “I think he was first elected when I was like in second grade. He’s been in there a long, long, long time.”

Lowering expectations is typically part of the political gamesmanship before a debate. Biden has said he has debated “an awful lot of tough, smart women” and Palin will be no exception.

=> Read more!

Cue Amy Poehler (who in my book isn't getting near her fair share of the praise for that hilarious Saturday Night Live skit last week). I was reminded of her temper-tantrum take on Hillary Clinton this morning when I opened my e-mail to find a message waiting from the folks at Northrop Grumman and Airbus parent EADS (hit "read more" to see it).

Give these guys credit for persistence. Three months after they lost the contract to build the new Air Force aerial-refueling tankers and one week after the Pentagon said it won't take new bids until after a new president is in the White House, the Northrop Grumman folks are still calling themselves "America's Next Tanker" and arguing for a quick rebid of the contract. At least the twice-daily e-mails once sent to the press have become less frequent.

No question that time is of the essence, but so is a fair process that selects the best plane. The Airbus group is making hay over the comment by General Norton Schwartz that awarding the tanker contract could take four years – a comment that bears some explanation. That's the possible worst-case timeline if the Defense Department throws out the work that already has been done and begins the process again from a cold start. That's not what Boeing has requested, at least not yet.

=> Read more!

This year’s presidential candidates have thrown unfair attacks at each other, but these pale in comparison to what’s going on outside their campaigns. The hacking of Sarah Palin’s private email account is an example of the viciousness some partisans are engaging in, especially on the Internet.

A deal ought to be a deal: If Lakewood officials committed to providing security at the city’s Sound Transit station, it should do so. Even without Sounder Service, the station’s express buses will be providing an immense service to Lakewood commuters.

If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

It just occurred to me that I've gone for weeks without getting a whiff of tobacco smoke anywhere. Not outdoors, not indoors.

Something's working – some combination of steep cigarette taxes, peer pressure, indoor smoke bans and slow-on-the-uptake folks finally getting it. A new survey finds that the rate of adult smoking in Washington has fallen to 16.5 percent.

In other words, five out of six Washingtonians have quit smoking, or else they never got started. Sadly, most of the Washingtonians who still smoke are either poor or undereducated.

To see how Washington stacks up against other states in tobacco use, check this chart from the Kaiser Family Foundation. We're doing a heck of a lot better than West Virginia, where the rate is 26.8 percent, but still worse than Utah, where it's 11.7 percent.

As a country, we're at roughly 20 percent. That's less than half of the rate in 1965 – 42 percent. Progress!

In an editorial I wrote about the University Place City Council decision on domestic partner benefits, I mentioned the challenge employers will have in coming years finding replacements for the wave of retiring baby boomers.

This article that came across the wire looks at how some employers are trying to improve their ability to deal with those retirements.

Demographics, not destiny

By Grant Freeland, Anders Fahlander and Chuck Scullion

With as many as 15,000 air traffic controllers expected to retire by 2017, the Federal Aviation Administration is ramping up recruitment, hiring and training, even advertising on MySpace and Craigslist.

The FAA is not alone. A third of all employees on the federal government’s payroll in 2007 will be eligible to retire by 2012. Private companies and many professions face similar problems, with the percentage of workers 55 years and older in manufacturing, transportation, utilities, finance, education, medicine and state and local government ranging from 17 percent to 21 percent.

With a civilian workforce of approximately 145.5 million people, the retirement bulge creates a huge challenge for our country and economy.

=> Read more!

The rolling disaster on Wall Street continues. The mysterious AIG – now being bailed out by the Treasury Department – is a perfect example of the hidden connections of the credit crisis.

The state’s new and as yet underfunded rainy day account should be a last resort, not a first.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Charles Creso, a past Tacoma City Council candidate (and very first UWT grad in 1991), challenges the idea that the city's doesn't have enough money to fix its streets.

The following is his response to an editorial suggesting that the council revive a road-tax measure that failed in 2006:

As you know, when it comes to funding the repair of Tacoma’s streets, the city has relied significantly on revenues from the real estate excise tax and collections from that tax in 2008 have been far below normal.

Side Note: Early this year, well before city staff, I sent the Council a heads up that RE excises taxes would be come in far below normal. I was able to anticipate the substantial reduction because I paid close attention to The News Tribune's Devona Wells articles and knew the city finance implications of what she was writing about.

I confirmed low sales numbers from independent sources (real estate is my profession) and realized city RE excise revenues would be less than 50% of normal. Several weeks later, city staff confirmed my numbers.

However, the city has another significant source of funds which may be used for street repairs, the General Fund, by a vote of the council. Surpluses in the General Fund for the biennium 07/08 are at unprecedented all time, historic, record highs.

=> Read more!

Railroads have balked at installing the kind of technology that might have prevented the Metrolink disaster in L.A. It’s an issue of concern here, where almost all Sounder commuter track is shared with freight trains.

The Legislature should take a good look at the Federal Way police chief’s proposal to expand second-degree assault to include the use of fake guns pointed at cops. A firearm that is unloaded is still considered a deadly weapon under the law; a loaded BB gun that officers have every reason to believe is a real gun should be no different.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

The U.S. Treasury and the nation's leading banks have bet that Lehman Brothers wasn't too big to fail. Cross your fingers.

The rise and fall of Gig Harbor-based charity is another cautionary tale for donors about giving wisely.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

A pig pit-roasted on the spot by Primo Grill's Charlie McManus. Linen-covered tables on the lawn just a few yards from a pen full of Muscovy ducks and a bounteous crop of basil. All the delicious wine you could drink from Phyllis McGavick's "hobby" winery.

And perfect end-of-summer weather for dining on the farm and under the stars.

The first Harvest Feast Tacoma was a benefit for the Tacoma Farmers Market and a celebration of the "locavore" philosopy of eating food grown where you live.

The setting was Terry's Berries farm on River Road, well known to local locavores as a year-round source of organic farm-share veggies and fruits. Terry and Dick Carkner run the operation.

Maybe I'm encroaching on TNT Diner territory here, but the event was as much a celebration of community as it was a celebration of locally grown food and local culinary skills. Tickets were pricey at $75 a head, but it was a great value for a good cause.

Particular credit goes to chef McManus, who rounded up other local chefs to prepare dishes for the feast, which was served buffet-style. All of it was good, but the unbelievably moist but firm cake – sorry, I didn't find out what kind it was – made by Old Milwaukee Cafe's Pat Kerth – was sublime. Even people who don't like cake were raving about it.

McGavick is known among local foodies and wine lovers for her excellent red wines, made at the home winery she and her husband operate in Grapeview. They donate all proceeds to charity, mainly in Pierce County.

I think we've seen the birth of another great tradition here with Harvest Feast Tacoma. Nothing official yet, but I can't imagine there won't be a repeat next year.

I have an article on today's print-version editorial page about a well-attended conference on electric vehicles earlier this month held at Microsoft headquarters in Redmond.

The Seattle-based Discovery Institute, which organized the two-day event, has video of a terrific speech -- mentioned in my article -- by former CIA chief James Woolsey. Woolsey says breaking the U.S. addiction to foreign oil is a matter of national security. Find the video here.

About the same time as the conference, the Wall Street Journal published a Woolsey oped making a more technical case for electric vehicles. See it here.

Finally, today's New York Times has this article on General Motors' plans to unveil its electric Chevy Volt this week during the company's 100th birthday celebration.

Industry experts warn the Volt may not live up to consumer expectations, given that the car's battery technology is largely untested. One calls it a car "with a $10,000 battery" that is not likely to last more than a few years.

GM says it will have a plug-in hybrid model of its Saturn Vue on the market in 2010.

In our editorial today, we cited the Republican Governors Association joining the Dino Rossi camp's relentless pursuit of Gov. Gregoire over the state's tribal gaming compact.

The association has contributed $1 million to a dedicated fundraising committee for the Washington governor's race but hasn't revealed the extent of the media buy for its "Casino Chris" ad campaign.

By the way, the revenue sharing arrangement that allegedly would have netted the state $140 million (a figure the Gregoire campaign disputes) was opposed by the Pierce County legislative delegation. It worried that the deal would lead to a broad expansion of gambling.

Here are the two spots the RGA has up so far.

Washington Post columnist Charles Krauthammer moved a column late Friday afternoon about the ABC interview with Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin.

It came in too late for our weekend pages (we might be able to run it next week), but we thought online readers might enjoy reading it. It focuses on the "Bush doctrine" question.

By CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER

“Ms. Palin most visibly stumbled when she was asked by Mr. Gibson if she agreed with the Bush doctrine. Ms. Palin did not seem to know what he was talking about. Mr. Gibson, sounding like an impatient teacher, informed her that it meant the right of `anticipatory self-defense.’“
— New York Times, Sept. 12

WASHINGTON — Informed her? Rubbish.
The Times got it wrong. And Charlie Gibson got it wrong.
There is no single meaning of the Bush doctrine. In fact, there have been four distinct meanings, each one succeeding another over the eight years of this administration — and the one Charlie Gibson cited is not the one in common usage today.

=> Read more!

The Secretary of State's office has just certified eight presidential tickets for the November ballot, and a quarter of them are ... revolutionary communists.

These guys don't give up easy.

One pair of candidates hails from the Party of Socialism and Liberation, a Maoist (as far as I can figure out) splinter of the Workers World Party.

The Socialist Workers Party accounts for the other ticket. This is an old Trotskyite outfit and a big admirer of Fidel Castro.

Check their Web sites. You'd think it was 1938, not 2008. Even Russia and China have long since left them behind. They do get points for persistence.

Hurricane Ike is already battering the Gulf Coast. And predictions are that the megastorm will cause enormous damage when it makes landfill late tonight or early Saturday in Texas.

It's very possible that Ike will come ashore at or near Galveston. Forecasters have warned residents of low-lying areas there of “certain death” if they ignore a mandatory-evacuation order.

This sounds frighteningly all too familiar to anyone who has read "Isaac's Storm," Erik Larson's riveting account of the devastating 1900 hurricane that destroyed Galveston and killed between 6,000 and 8,000 people. It is still the nation's deadliest natural disaster.

If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it. If you do, I suspect you'll never try to "ride out" a hurricane. Larson, by the way, is a Seattle author who also wrote "The Devil in the White City" and "Thunderstruck."

For more photos of the Great Storm's aftermath in Galveston, click on More.

=> Read more!

Sunday: The Republican governors PAC is buying pro-Rossi ads attacking Chris Gregoire for rejecting revenue-sharing from tribal gambling. But revenue sharing is a good idea only if you want government beholden to casinos.

Monday: The fact that only 2 percent of today’s medical students are interested in primary care bodes very ill for health care access in the future.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

University Place extends discounted health benefits to domestic partners. Nobody's particularly happy about it. This guy's really not happy about it.

You'd almost forget U.P. is one of the few cities around here that has bothered to offer anything to domestic partners. (An editorial noting this appears tomorrow.)

I guess the recent morphing of TNT into the Ft. Lewis Ranger is now complete. On Monday evening -- as in TWO days ago! -- that august bastion of the Enlightenment, the UP city council, enacts a policy of gay apartheid, and TNT doesn't even report on it until Wednesday. And still no editorial comment!! Are we interrupting your naps?? Of course, if this had been some pro-military thing, the TNT would have been all over it like flies on a dead Iraqi child.

=> Read more!

1. Enough, already. How many times does a pit bull have to kill a child, maim a neighbor or slaughter another dog before the breed's champions admit the obvious? Pit bulls and their fighting-breed cousins are, plain and simple, a threat.

2. The University Place City Council managed to tick off people on both sides of the domestic partner benefits issue Monday – a fairly reliable indicator that it neither overstepped nor understepped.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Listening to Dennis Kucinich – and now Jim McDermott – you have to believe they are serious about impeaching George W. Bush.

Given that Nancy Pelosi and other Democratic leaders treat the idea as if it were radioactive, impeachment was a quixotic notion from the start.

But with only four months remaining in Bush's tenure, when – exactly – are the impeachment and subsequent Senate trial supposed to take place?

While members of Congress are busy running for re-election between now and November? In the brief lame-duck session after the election?

Even McDermott has to realize this just ain't going to happen. I could kind of understand it if he'd signed on earlier, but why wait until the clock has run out before joining the team?

1. A November ballot measure that would ban casinos in Lakewood has forced City Manager Andrew Neiditz to propose two city budgets: a status quo spending plan that assumes the ballot measure will lose and a "Plan B" that assumes it will prevail. The gap between the two shows just how addicted the city government is to gambling revenues – which amount to a stealth tax on the poor and gullible.

2. Add this to the list of what's riding on the outcome of the 2008 presidential election: Boeing's chance of nabbing a $35 billion Air Force tanker contract.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
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At last week's City Club of Tacoma forum for Pierce County executive candidates, the League of Women Voters gave audience members a tutorial on ranked-choice voting.

The race was to name the two Tacoma Narrows' bridges. The winners: Olympic and Cascade.

It seems some "voters" had trouble figuring out how to mark their ballots (which is strange since such basics don't change with an RCV election), and others didn't understand there's no advantage in voting the same choice all three times.

This was our first large group for teaching RCV. Our key point was that Ranked Choice Voting for the voter is as easy as One, Two, Three. The only complicated part is the counting which will be done a computer. Please let your readers know we can do the same thing for their group as we did at the City Club.

Some interesting items: People circled their choice, checked their choice, and one even circled the arrow but most connected the arrow as they were supposed to. I made the point to the group that the machine can only read the connected arrow and anything else will have to be handcounted which was complicated.

Several people only voted for one, several voted for the same for all three. The other point we made is that you don't have to vote for all three. You can vote for one, two, or three. Voting the same doesn't change anything.
Another point to make is that for the election they can vote for any party they want, even different parties in each column.

The final result from the City Club was Cascade for the Old Bridge and Olympic for the New Bridge. It was an extremely close vote though with Old and New and Gerty and Gordy just one point behind. We will continue to do this exercise at each of our forums and I'll let you know the updates.

Thanks for your interest.
Terri Baker, 1st VP, LWV

Here's a Mike Peters cartoon I guarantee will not turn up in the printed edition.

I just wouldn't want to field the irate phone calls that morning!

Plow through this post if you want to read 1) a provocative op-ed that we declined to run in the print edition, 2) my explanation of why we didn't run it and 3) the author's response to that explanation.

The author is Robert Crawford, professor of interdisciplinary arts and sciences at the University of Washington, Tacoma.

At last week’s Republic convention, we heard claims that a McCain-Palin administration would mean a break with the past. Why, then, would Sarah Palin repeat one of the most consistent Bush-Cheney mantras – a “Whatever it takes!” bravado which, when wedded to a politics of fear, helped Republicans exploit the 9/11 tragedy for political advantage and a narrow ideological agenda that brought us the Iraq war.

Here is Palin’s enthusiastically received convention remark: “Al Qaeda terrorists still plot to inflict catastrophic harm on America . . . and [Obama] is worried that someone won’t read them their rights?”

Palin’s ploy is a not-so-hidden challenge to the rule of law in the War on Terrorism. Since 9/11, George W. Bush and Dick Cheney have done everything in their power to the law in detaining and interrogating “enemy combatants.”

The evidence that the government has approved torture and the outsourcing of torture to other countries is now overwhelming and under different political circumstances would certainly be grounds for impeachment or criminal prosecution.

Secret meetings, secret law-making, administration denials, a willed determination to undermine every Congressional and Court effort to return the government to the rule of law – this is the legacy of the last seven years.

=> Read more!

An alert reader (see John Sherman's comment here) has pointed out that Tacoma isn't the only jurisdiction experiencing a marked drop in traffic fatalities. According to preliminary data posted on the Washington Traffic Safety Commission site, Washington state had a 20 percent reduction in vehicle occupant deaths during the first half of 2008.

Sherman called the data to our attention for an editorial about the City of Tacoma's red-light cameras. Police are hoping the cameras reduce traffic accidents, and numbers from the first year of operation seem to indicate they do. After three years of no change, the city's serious collisions have dropped nearly 50 percent this year. Fatal accidents have declined a third.

I asked Lt. Pete Cribbin at Tacoma PD if the statewide trend refutes the argument that red-light cameras are behind the city's lower accident count. The short answer: He's not sure. The long one: He doesn't think so. Cribbin says more drivers may be opting to stay home rather than pay high gas prices, but those decisions don't appear to be making a dent in Tacoma's traffic.

Cribbin said urban drivers get behind the wheel out of necessity more than choice. "The trips where people are going to work or going to school – those are the kind of accidents that we investigate. And those are the kind of trips that aren't optional."

I have a call into the city's public works department to ask whether traffic counts on city arterials have remained constant even as gas prices have shot through the roof. I'll let you know what I find out.

We hate to point out the obvious, but the City of Tacoma’s street-repair program wouldn’t have been hit by the recent asphalt shortage if it had been keeping its streets in repair all along.

We agree with the Kansas City Star:

Both John McCain and Barack Obama need to be more specific about their priorities in trying to reduce the country’s dependence on imported energy and boost production of renewable fuels. Both could do a better job of laying out the choices that would have to be made, especially in handing out tax breaks and subsidies.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
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Under socialism, a government seeks control of the "commanding heights" of an economy. That wasn't the idea Sunday when Bush administration moved to put mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac into a federal "conservatorship," But the short-term result is similar om the mortgage industry.

Speed kills, but apparently not as often as color blindness. The numbers from the first 12 months of Tacoma's red-light camera program are in, and they bolster arguments that the cameras save lives.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
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Some nifty electric cars were displayed at the Discovery Institute's "Beyond Oil" conference I attended last week at the Microsoft campus in Redmond.

My pick as most practical and affordable plug-in for daily, in-town use is an NEV (Neighborhood Electric Vehicle) that sells for $17,000 to $20,000 depending on the model.

It's the ZENN car(Zero Emissions No Noise) sold in the Northwest by MC Electric Vehicles of Seattle. NEVS are small battery-powered cars with a federally mandated top speed of 25 mph due to lack of air bags. In Washington, they're allowed to go 35 mph.

Salesman Ty Rice (pictured), who was showing off the car, said it has a 30- to 35-mile range and can be charged in any conventional electric outlet. Takes six to eight hours to fully charge, three to four to charge 80 percent.

Drives like a Mini Cooper, Ty claimed. Runs on a six-pack of deep-cycle marine batteries – off the shelf technology, so to speak. The next generation will have lithium ion batteries, lighter and longer-lived. Operating cost about a cent a mile, 92 percent less than a gasoline-powered car. "Sales are excellent," Ty told me. "Thirty of 'em on Bainbridge Island alone."

OK, the catch. After three to five years, you need to replace the batteries, at $300 a pop. But hey, you get to feel so GREEN!

=> Read more!

There's nothing the conservative editorial page editors of the Wall Street Journal love more than sticking it to The New York Times, the exemplar of the liberal establishment.

Here's a nifty zinger that appeared as a "Notable & Quotable" item in Saturday's Journal:

From a New York Times editorial on July 3, 1984, on Geraldine Ferraro's nomination for vice president:

Where is it written that only senators are qualified to become President? . . . Or where is it written that mere representatives aren't qualified, like Geraldine Ferraro of Queens? . . . Where is it written that governors and mayors, like Dianne Feinstein of San Francisco, are too local, too provincial? . . . Presidential candidates have always chosen their running mates for reasons of practical demography, not for idealized democracy . . . What a splendid system, we say to ourselves, that takes little-known men, tests them in high office and permits them to grow into statesmen . . . Why shouldn't a little-known woman have the same opportunity to grow?

I've favored extending the time Point Defiance Park's Five Mile Drive is closed to vehicular traffic. I've even editorialized about it.

But now Metro Parks says it is making the weekend closure of the road permanent at Point Defiance Park from dawn to 1 p.m. on weekends. (You can still take a survey on the proposal for another week by clicking here.) I have to admit to having one misgiving, based on personal experience.

I was back on one of the trails at Point Defiance on a Sunday morning in July with my sister and a friend when I tripped and badly hurt my ankle. (I later found out it was broken, thanks to the nice folks in the Tacoma General ER.) I needed someone to bring me some crutches so that I could get out to the road and be taken to the hospital.

We considered calling 911, but figured what would happen is that a fire truck and ambulance would show up and a crew of firefighters would have to hike in and haul me out. I didn't think my injury warranted such a fuss, not to mention whatever I'd be billed for ambulance transport.

=> Read more!

Gov. Chris Gregoire never misses a chance to remind voters that Washington has been rated the third best state for business by Forbes magazine.

That's nice, but here's a much bigger deal: Washington has been rated the top state for bicycling. (Yes, I spend a lot of time on two wheels.)

The honor was reported this week by the state Department of Transportation:

OLYMPIA – Citing our state’s bicycle policies, facilities and programs, the League of American Bicyclists has named Washington as the nation’s number one “Bicycle Friendly State.” This award, the first ever to be given to an entire state, was announced during the National Pro Bike – Pro Walk Conference in Seattle on Sept. 5 . . .

“We are fortunate to have strong partnerships between local and state agencies, bicycle groups and healthcare providers who are dedicated to increasing opportunities for bicycling while reducing bicycle injuries and deaths,” said Secretary of Transportation Paula Hammond. “In Washington, we’ve developed priorities and strategies to improve bicycle connections, increase statewide coordination, and make biking a viable commute option.”

The Bicycle Friendly State Program is a recognition program that ranks a state’s bike-friendliness and recognizes states that actively support bicycling as a way of addressing climate change, traffic congestion, obesity and high fuel prices. States are rated based on their encouragement of bicycling through legislation, policies and programs, education and encouragement, places to ride, and planning.

Here's reaction from leaders in Tacoma's cycling community.

=> Read more!

Note: This will appear as a column on Sunday's oped page.

The ancient Romans had a legendary hero named Mucius Cordus. He had a grisly claim to fame.

He'd sneaked into the camp of an army besieging Rome and tried to kill the enemy king, who was worshipping at an altar. Instead, Cordus was caught. To demonstrate the Romans' contempt for pain, Cordus stuck his hand into a fire on the altar and held it there as it burned to a cinder. The king was impressed – and intimidated.

I can imagine John McCain doing something like that. In fact, he did do something like that when his communist captors in Hanoi offered to let him return to the United States.

Famously, he refused to leave before other prisoners of war who'd been held longer, thus voluntarily subjecting himself to more torture.

Not many American presidents – or senators, nominees, etc. – would have passed that test as young men. The ancient Romans or Spartans would have loved McCain. The question: Would a majority of Americans want a Mucius Cordus leading this country?

=> Read more!

Sunday: The spree of killings attributed to a untreated schizophrenic man in Skagit County on Tuesday shows how penny-wise and pound-foolish it is to "save money" by not providing mental health care to those who need it.

Monday: A new school year means a renewed need for reading tutors to help struggling elementary students catch up to their peers.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

More from editor emeritus Dave Seago:

What a difference having a passenger along makes in the morning commute on I-5.

That's old news, of course, to Pierce County's veteran road warriors. They know full well the advantages of using the HOV lanes to beat stop-and-go traffic.

But it was an eye-opener for me to drive from Tacoma to Redmond yesterday and today for a "Beyond Oil" conference at Microsoft headquarters. In working nearly 40 years for The News Tribune, I rarely had to brave the rush-hour commute to Seattle. But I got a full taste of it this week.

Yesterday I was a solo driver. The drive to Redmond took 90 minutes, largely due to the crawl through Renton and Bellevue on I-405. Luckily I allowed plenty of time. But this morning I carried a passenger, another conference participant from Tacoma. We sailed along in the HOV lanes, cruising to Redmond in only 55 minutes. What a deal.

I don't know how the state DOT's experiment with rush-hour tolling on "HOT lanes" on SR 167 in South King County is going. But I can see now how it's worth a few bucks to go solo in the HOV lanes when the traffic
is bad.

Much of the conference, organized by the Seattle-based Discovery Institute, focuses on electric cars and other alternate-fuel vehicles. But it occurs to me that even if we were to replace all our petro-fueled vehicles with clean and efficient vehicles, we'd still have clogged freeways. Traffic "management" – such as congestion pricing – still has to be part of our transportation solutions.

I wouldn't say anyone emerged the winner Wednesday night at the City Club of Tacoma's Pierce County executive candidate forum. But I did walk away thinking it was good to be Pat McCarthy.

Tacoma City Councilman Mike Lonergan came out swinging at County Councilmen Calvin Goings and Shawn Bunney, Goings piled on Bunney with attacks of his own, and Bunney tried to defend himself a lover of the environment (I've never heard a candidate boast of having spent more "nights under the stars" than his opponents).

Meanwhile, McCarthy got to stay above the fray. The boys were busy throwing elbows or dodging them, but no one came after her. There were fewer specifics in her answers than some others', but she appeared so darn reasonable against the backdrop. She talked about the county's potential and her promise to deliver results and even agreed with her opponents on a few occasions.

(Our Pierce County reporter, David Wickert, has a recap of the forum here.)

I'm not sure why no one took her on. Maybe the other candidates don't see her as a threat. Maybe it's because she's a woman. Maybe it's because her job as Pierce County auditor doesn't provide a lot of fodder for criticism. Whatever the reason, she stands to lose as much as she could gain from the hands-off treatment. Hard-fought races help candidates define themselves.

Our take on John McCain’s acceptance speech. He might already be upstaged by the pit bull with lipstick.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates delivered a stinging rebuke of Air Force administration two months ago when he yanked its authority for awarding the contract for new aerial refueling tankers. Now the Defense Department risks compounding the huge procurement blunder that prompted the Air Force's dressing down.

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

More from editor emeritus Dave Seago:

I'm at the Microsoft conference center in Redmond for a two-day conference called "Beyond Oil: Transforming Transportation ? A National Demonstration Project." It's got a fascinating roster of speakers, including former CIA chief James Woolsey, who has gone green in a big way, arguing that America's security depends on ending its dependence on foreign oil.

The conference is co-sponsored by Microsoft, the Seattle-based Discovery Institute's Cascadia Center and the Idaho National Laboratory.

I'll soon go inspect a fleet of alternate fuel vehicles parked outside. But I've already come across one clever gimmick. A fellow who contends that since most of us will still be driving some kind of vehicle on our roads and highways for a long time, part of the solution has to be promoting vastly more ride-sharing. He's looking for
$2 million for research on this strategy. See www.flexiblecarpooling.org.

His gimmick: He's passing out egg cartoons cut in half, each half-carton holding one fresh egg in a container meant to hold six. His point, of course, is that's the way we use our cars today.

From editor emeritus Dave Seago:

Dino Rossi's campaign signs on the Dry Side are a bit different than the ones we see over here on the Left, I mean, Wet Side.

I frequently saw signs like these, some of them on billboards, this week during a bike tour of Eastern Washington. The line about Seattle "stealing" the 2004 governor's election doesn't appear on similar signs and billboards in the Puget Sound area.

Nothing like stoking an old grudge to bring out the base, huh?

UPDATE: We received this note from Rossi campaign HQ:

I saw your blog post from today about the signs that say “Don’t let Seattle steal this election.”

I wanted to clarify that those signs in Eastern Washington are not Dino Rossi campaign signs. We had nothing to do with creating them, and we don’t agree with their message. We do not believe that Seattle – or anyone else – will steal this election and are confident there will be a fair playing field. Dino Rossi would not be running otherwise.

Thanks,
Jill Strait
Communications Director
Dino Rossi for Governor

A conservative Republican reader recently asked why (to him at least) we seem to tilt to the left in our choices of columns and political cartoons.

The gist of my answer:

What we’re trying to do on our opinion pages is provide a broad and representative range of perspectives. My goal is a selection of columnists and cartoons that would thoroughly confuse anyone trying to identify a liberal or conservative bias. In other words, even-handed selection. We’re going to be especially conscious of this during the election season.

Our roster of domestic-affairs political columnists consists of five conservatives (Charles Krauthammer, George Will, William Kristol, Kathleen Parker and David Brooks) and six liberals (Paul Krugman, Maureen Dowd, Bob Herbert, Ellen Goodman, Leonard Pitts and Eugene Robinson). (I hope I'm not leaving anyone out.)

We also run David Broder, whom I view as a reporter-analyst who has no obvious partisan or ideological agenda (he was one of the few commentators who panned Obama’s speech last week, for example).

I did a review of who we printed. From July 1 through today, we ran 39 pieces from our liberal and 31 pieces from our conservative columnists. Yes, that's a lean. It wasn't intentional and may have been influenced by the vacations columnists take in the summer. As I said, we'll be watching ourselves closely during this sensitive political season.

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With the primary election out of the way, we've moved on to interviewing candidates for the hottest races of the year: the ones for Pierce County government.

Don't laugh. Pierce County may be the largest jurisdiction to attempt ranked choice voting. The races here – especially the runoffs for Pierce County executive, assessor-treasurer and Councilman Calvin Goings' seat – will be closely watched by RCV fans and foes across the country.

Jan Shabro, former Pierce County councilwoman and state representative, was the first county candidate we've had a chance to grill about how RCV shapes campaign strategy. She's running for assessor-treasurer in a six-way race.

Shabro clearly is not fond of this new form of voting. She said nearly every voter she's run across can't remember voting for the RCV charter amendment. She surmises that it was all a reaction to the defunct pick-a-party primary. "They would vote for anything that was different, and this was anything."

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I was driving on Bridgeport Way over the weekend and spotted this espresso drive-thru – Annette's Grind – across from St. Clare Hospital. Given the number of "bikini barista" places that have sprung up in Lakewood recently, the owner apparently thought explanatory signage was necessary.

The owner isn't named Annette – it's Victor Edwards, who bears a strong resemblance to actor Don Cheadle. The stand is named after his late mother.

Although one of his female employees usually is working at the stand, Edwards was making drinks on Labor Day. He says several customers have remarked that they're glad he's not wearing a bikini. "I wouldn't want to see me in a bikini either!"

Annette's Grind is not far from Bikini Bottom Espresso on Bridgeport Way. The two stands were doing about the same amount of business on Monday. One thing Edwards offers that's a little different is that customers get a free drink after buying only four. And he offers Altoids along with a drink for dealing with coffee breath.

Eatonville's come up with a sure-fire strategy for snaring passing tourists: Let them go potty. It's building a new town center and plans to open public restrooms there by October 2009.

That may not sound like a big deal, but humans come equipped with only one bladder, and it's not all that big. Right now, there are no public facilities between Spanaway and the interior of Mount Rainier National Park – a good hour-and-a-half drive that often leaves that bladder screaming for relief.

For Eatonville, this is a brilliant marketing move. Picture the welcome signs: "Eatonville, the Restroom Capital of State Route 161." "Eatonville, the Little City that Cares."

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The Department of Social and Health Services owes the public some explanation for the summary firing of the psychiatric hospital’s chief executive.

So Bristol Palin, the eldest daughter of the Republican vice presidential candidate, is pregnant without the benefit of marriage.
So what?

About our editorials:
If you have comments or questions about these topics, please email them to patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com. Editorials represent the consensus view of The News Tribune's editorial board.
Want to sit in on a daily ed board meeting? Email cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com to make an appointment.

Here's hoping you're not laboring today. We have a skeleton crew in the office – otherwise known as Kim Bradford – staffing the Opinionator Desk.

If you've ever written a letter to the editor and forgotten to include some of the required information, you might have gotten an e-mail or phone call from Terri Bell (pictured) – the news assistant extraordinaire who usually handles the letters. Turns out she was born on Labor Day. No word on whether her mother found that ironic.

Happy birthday, Terri!