What’s in the News

Joel Connelly hits the political hit pieces:

As big-name Democratic lawyers endorsed the Republican interim King County prosecutor this week, and stressed Dan Satterberg’s non-partisan virtues, a nasty partisan hit piece went out in the mail.

King County Republicans smeared Bill Sherman, the deputy prosecutor and Democratic nominee who is challenging a 60-year GOP lock on the office.

“Now is not the time to surrender this office to an extreme fringe liberal who is incapable of administering justice for all King County residents,” county GOP Chairman Michael Young wrote in a fundraising letter.

Joel goes on defending the records of both candidates, and in the comment thread, King County Council candidate Richard Pope meaninglessly disagrees on the details, and in general people disagree with Joel. As one commenter quipped:

Am I the only one who finds the irony in Connelly complaining about “hit” pieces?

In in a sense I agree with Joel. These non-partisan races are probably going to keep getting uglier. Heck, I’m basically guilty of “the hit” myself and probably will be in the future. Why? Well, I think it is the pressure of supposed party grassroots to get party faithful to sign on as candidates for many lower level positions. [edit for clarification] Candidate recruitment not a bad thing at all really. Afterall, it gets people involved who might not have otherwise and judging from the amount of unopposed incumbents in past years, it will fill the ballot with good qualified people. The problem seems to be the tactics where these lower level positions (not that the King Co. Prosecutor is exactly lower level but for the sake of example forgive me), especially the non-partisan ones, come with the backing, support and tactics of the party. This is where we are though. Democrats lost big in the 90’s by being too damn nice if you ask me. And swiftboating is now a household name. Welcome to politics you moonbat/wingnut freak!!

What Will Be News

My prediction today will be on yet another Seattle issue but bear with me. David Goldstein of Horsesass.org filed a public records request on a hunch that anti-transit folks were leaked information ahead of the actual performance audit reports after reading this from PI Columist Ted Van Dyke:

Later this month, state Auditor Brian Sonntag will release such audits of the Washington State Department of Transportation and Sound Transit and, shortly thereafter, of the Port of Seattle. All three audits will precede fall elections and could have important impacts on voter decisions about the Sound Transit-RTID regional transportation package and Port of Seattle Commission races.

This, after Van Dyke lauds the “broad appeal” of the persistent failure of Eyman initiatives. David writes:

The more I re-read that paragraph the more suspicious I got, especially in light of recent rumors and hints that the anti-transit crowd has been leaked information regarding the upcoming reports. Van Dyk seems to think it a great thing that performance audits be timed for release just weeks before crucial votes regarding these agencies, but I can’t help suspect it an overtly political maneuver. It is also potentially the death knell for performance audits as a useful tool in Washington state.

Performance audits are not comparable to financial audits in either scope or purpose. You don’t just bring in a third party to examine the books in search of waste, fraud or abuse, but rather, you observe and analyze the performance of an agency and its procedures for the purpose of recommending changes that could lead to greater efficiencies. While in a worst case scenario a performance audit could conclude that an agency does not fulfill its mission at all, it is mostly meant as a productivity tool, and as such requires the full cooperation of the management and staff being audited if it is to be effective. If instead, performance audits are used as a means to politically punish and embarrass an agency — including, say, influencing elections — then future audits on other agencies will never gain the inside trust and cooperation necessary to conduct them.

Why does Eastern Washington care? Well, this is exactly (if David’s suspicions are correct) what the right wing, being in the minority, will capitalize on in the coming months. Instead of using performance audits as a measure for improvement, it will be the yardstick of failure for any report that is less than favorable giving posture, however ill gained. Let’s hope the traditional media doesn’t buy in. That wouldn’t serve the purpose. Lessons here for everybody.

The Really Really Cool News

Washington State’s Own breaks the land speed record for a production automobile.

Zoooooooom! What was that? A Ferrari, a Bugatti, a Lamborghini?

No, at a blurring speed of more than 255 mph, it was West Richland resident Jerod Shelby’s Ultimate Aero, a two-seater supercar designed and built to go faster than any other street-legal automobile.

I had the unique opportunity to work the road crew for this car some months back on one of their test runs. On Wednesday, I got a call to come work it again and watch the car but I had to work my “real” job. I am full of regrets! This is a big deal on a grand scale. A small American car maker, in West Richland Washington, beats out the european engineering gods and if all goes well as I am sure, will officially be in the record books for the fastest production street-legal automobile. Congrats to Jerod Shelby and his team!!

I’ll leave you with some pics from my earlier adventure with the Ultimate Aero TT. That’s the news!