Here's another tidbit from our meeting yesterday with Skip Priest and Mark Miloscia. The Federal Way lawmakers hail from different parties, but they were unanimous in their assessment of Gov. Chris Gregoire. Both think she hasn't lived up to her potential, and both traced her abdication of the bully pulpit to the Alaskan Way viaduct.

Priest suggested – and Miloscia nodded in agreement – that Gregoire hasn't shown true leadership since 2005, her first year in office when ironically she was at a disadvantage after getting a late start following a contested election. She pushed through a gas tax that year, but then unable or unwilling to wield the power of her office to break ground on one of the biggest projects in the package, the viaduct.

Negotiations, "visioning" and much dithering have ensued. Another deadline for deciding how to replace the crumbling elevated highway came and went today.

Neither Priest nor Miloscia are much impressed by the proposed budget Gregoire rolled out this month, which Priest said attempts to spread the pain of a $5.7 billion budget shortfall too indiscriminately. They both are watching closely to see if the governor's plans to reform state government, which she has yet to announce, are more hard-nosed in setting priorities and tying spending on a program's ability to deliver.

The hubbub over "Barack the Magic Negro" needs some context. And then the context needs some context.

The song is a parody – a distinctly offensive one – that GOP chair-apparent Chip Saltsman passed out for Christmas.

But the song's title, the most offensive thing about it, is also the title and theme of an essay published in the Los Angeles Times last March by a part-black writer. It's a case of "The sensitive liberal guy said it, so I get to say it, too."

Here are some on-target observations from sensitive liberal guy Tim Rutton.

An excerpt:

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I will not keep checking my Facebook for updates. I will not keep checking my Facebook for updates.

If you have never heard of Facebook count yourself as lucky and slowly step away from the computer. This is Internet crack and you want no part of it.

For the rest of you who have Facebook you understand the addiction. Keep in mind denial is the first sign of someone who is saying no.

I tell myself I am new to Facebook, that soon the novelty will wear off and I’ll forget it’s even there. That’s what I tell myself.

So far I have 50 friends on Facebook, a paltry and rather embarrassing sum in comparison to most, but I like all my Facebook friends and that’s what matters. Included in my little group are my best friend from second grade, my high school geometry teacher and a presidential press secretary, all people I have known and worked with in both recent and long ago chapters.

I liken Facebook to having all your favorite literary characters in one room:

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One of the favorite clichés used by editorial cartoonists this time of year shows the old year – portrayed by a wizened, tired codger – handing off to the young pup who symbolizes the new year.

One such cartoon appears in today's print edition, and former News Tribune cartoonist Chris Britt has worked up a special version for Northwest sports fans that will appear on Jan. 1. It will accompany a roundup of humorous (we hope) "Headlines we'd like to see in 2009."

Here's another one in the genre by Jeff Stahler of the Columbus Dispatch.