This blog is designed to give readers a glimpse of our editorial-page operation and how we make our decisions. We’ll let you know who we’re meeting with, what they’re telling us, what events and issues we’re looking at. We’ll also pass on information and observations that may not make our print editions. In addition to the editorial board members who post on this blog, the board includes Publisher David Zeeck, Executive Editor Karen Peterson and Managing Editor Dale Phelps.
Editorial board bloggers
Editorial page editor Patrick O’Callahan oversees the online and printed opinion sections of The News Tribune. He came to The News Tribune in 1987 and has worked at Washington newspapers since 1979. E-mail him at patrick.ocallahan@thenewstribune.com
Editorial writer Cheryl Tucker, in addition to writing commentary, manages the daily production of the editorial and op-ed pages and edits letters to the editor. She began her journalism career in 1974 at a Virginia newspaper and came to The News Tribune in 1978. E-mail her at cheryl.tucker@thenewstribune.com.
Editorial writer Kim Bradford manages the online opinion section of The News Tribune and writes commentary. She joined The News Tribune in 2005 after working 11 years at newspapers in Washington and Maryland. E-mail her at kim.bradford@thenewstribune.com.
Guest bloggers
Editor emeritus David Seago retired from The News Tribune in 2008 after 41 years at The News Tribune. E-mail him at sds99@harbornet.com.
Richard Davis’ column on state politics frequently runs in the print edition of The News Tribune. He was president of the Washington Research Council, a statewide think tank, from 1986 through 2006. Currently, as a principal with The Simeon Partnership, Inc. he coordinates the activities of the Washington Alliance for a Competitive Economy, a business coalition founded by the Research Council, the Association of Washington Business and the Washington Roundtable.
Karen Irwin of University Place, a mother of four, has been a frequent contributor to The News Tribune's print editions. She has also written for Seattle's Child, Puget Sound Parent, the Tacoma Weekly, the Fayetteville Observer Times and the political blog Right Meets Left. She graduated from California Lutheran University with a degree in English literature and is currently working toward a history degree.
Michael Allen, professor of history at the University of Washington Tacoma, was born and raised in Ellensburg. He served with the U.S. Marines in Vietnam from 1969-70. He has written five books, including the prize-winning "Patriot's History of the United States: From Columbus' Great Discovery to the War on Terror," "Rodeo Cowboys in the North American Imagination" and "Western Rivermen, 1763-1861: Ohio and Mississippi Boatmen and the Myth of the Alligator Horse." Allen lives in Tacoma and Ellensburg and has three children.
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The brochure promises “the grand company of luminaries,” and calls for all like-minded souls to congregate on a luxury cruise around the Mediterranean. For 14,000 dollars you and your significant other can sail the high seas with conservative royalty Karl Rove and Co.
When passengers aren’t busy partaking of the endless buffets and sunning themselves on their own private veranda they can cruise into the inner recesses of Karl Rove’s mind during “an exclusive cocktail reception.”
All this aboard the beautiful Holland America's Noordam or as the GOP could call it, the “S.S. We-Might-As-Well-Go-Down-With-Drink-In-Hand”
When you think about it, a cruise ship could be the perfect place for underscoring a Rove/ Limbaugh philosophy. In fact, these gentlemen might say a cruise ship makes for a perfect microcosm of conservative society.
Consider life on a cruise ship and compare:
Society needs hierarchy:
Father knows best and so does the Captain. Information from the bridge comes on a need to know basis. Complaints, criticism are insubordinate.
Beautiful women make the best messengers:
Think Sarah Palin, the women of Fox News and the recent conservative hero “Miss California.” When these women say that corporations need more tax benefits not less, that civil rights should be limited, and healthcare is a privilege not a right, it just sounds better, softens the message if you will sort of like “Limbo on the Lido!”
Do not go down below:
Working conditions on a cruise ship are very hush hush. Many crewmembers work 12-14 hours a day seven days a week for about four hundred dollars a month, and yet I can almost hear Rush now “ If crewmembers were meant to be lounging on the deck enjoying the drink of the day Peachaliscious, they would have worked harder. And don’t they have flat screen televisions and cell phones anyway? “
Who cares about the environment, we are having a good time!
According to a recent NY Times article, cruise ships emit twice as much carbon dioxide as airplanes and a one week voyage produces about 250,000 gallons of sewage, all of which gets dumped into the seas. Concentrations of bacteria, chlorine, metals and other pollutants are affecting marine life. But there’s limbo on the Lido.
It should be noted that liberals have had many cruises with their “luminaries,” and that conditions aboard these luxury liners are rapidly improving regarding their employees and the environment, but that said, we still wouldn’t want to fashion a society after one.
Fun may be had up on the Lido Deck but without extreme authoritarianism any trouble down below will eventually find it’s way up and vice versa. Although some conservatives choose to ignore it, the fact remains that we as a nation, and as a planet, are all very much in the same boat.
Bon voyage Karl Rove, bon voyage.
