DSHS Employee Arrested for Food Stamp Theft

A 44 year old Graham woman who works for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, the entity in charge of the States Food Stamp program, was placed under arrest on suspicion of food stamp theft. 

The Pierce County DSHS office was contacted by a former client who had turned in his EBT card in September of 2010 when he received a letter stating that he needed to recertify for his benefits.  He thought that a bit odd, as he had asked the account be closed, and the office found that the card had been used to make purchases totally more than $3200 since that time. 

They asked the Washington State Patrol to investigate, and the subject of the investigation was moved to a different assignment in DSHS for the duration.  The investigation concluded with her arrest for four counts of unlawful redemption of food stamps, which is a felony. 

On a lighter note, I’m sure she spent the $3200 she save in food purchases for something really awesome, and we all get the joy of helping to pay for it.  Now that she got caught, we get to pay her room and board for a few years as well.  The only ‘win’ to be found in this story anywhere is the guy who managed to get himself financially stable enough not to need the state assistance anymore.  What’s even more impressive is that he voluntarily went in and turned in the card, even though he likely could have kept drawing benefits for at least a little while longer. 

He used the system for precisely what it was intended for.  To help get back on his feet.  One could only hope that there might be a few more people out there like this guy.  Hat’s off to you, good sir.  I hope you have kids, and are teaching them to be as responsible as you are.  We could use a few more people like you in this country.

WEA Endorses GOP Candidate & Gov. Gregoire Appoints GOP Senator to State Position

You didn’t read that wrong, the Washington Education Association, an organization that typically is considered “left-leaning” by people who consider themselves to be “right-leaning”, has endorsed across the void.

Kim Wyman, Republican candidate for Secretary of State, is the first statewide candidate to receive an endorsement from the WEA.  As unions typically tend to favor Democratic candidates, and teachers tend to favor democratic candidates, it comes as a bit of a shock that a teachers union might go for a GOP offering. 

The WEA also endorsed two Republican candidates for the state Legislature, among the usual smattering of Democratic candidate endorsements. 

Added to this unusual showing of non-partisan political maneuvering, we have Governor Gregoire’s appointment of GOP Senator Cheryl Pflug of Maple Valley to a state position on the Washington Growth Management Hearings Board, which pays $92,500 per year.  This is nearly double what a State Senator is paid, and comes with the added benefits of not having to run for election, and being a six year appointment.  Some cynical folks will likely say this appointment was made in order to get Pflug, the incumbent, to drop out of the Senate race to allow a Democratic candidate to have a better chance at winning, but being Pflug was one of only 4 GOPers to support legalizing gay marriage in this state, she had already likely alienated a decent sized chunk of her more “traditional marriage” favoring supporters out there. 

With all this cross party action going on, one can’t help but wonder…. are we finally going to see a little work in this state towards fixing problems regardless of party affiliation, or is this just a quirk of the game?

Medical Marijuana–The Controversy Continues

Over and over again, we’ve watch the same debates play out in different places.  Should it be legal?  Should it be legal only with a prescription?  Should it be totally illegal?

There seems no end to the varying opinions on this.  Marijuana is a controversy that just won’t go away.  As someone who believes the war on drugs is completely outside the scope of the Federal Government, I firmly believe that there should be no Federal level regulations on any drugs.  However, the states still have the power to make laws, and they are not constrained by the US Constitution in the way the Feds are. 

In Washington State, Marijuana became legal for medical use, with a prescription and a handy-dandy medical marijuana card so you can show the cops that yes, indeed, you’re allowed to have this, a couple of years ago.  The state goofed, however, and never codified the system for distribution.  This left a giant gaping hole for the Feds to wander in, ignoring the fact that Washington had passed legislation allowing medical marijuana.  There have been numerous Federal Raids of dispensaries that popped up since the legalization, and the Feds continue to arrest and prosecute more individuals all the time.

It’s high time (pun intended) that the powers that reside in Olympia get in gear and define exactly what the correct and legal method for purchase, sales, transport, and possession of medical marijuana is, so that there can be clear state laws to prevent Federal Agents from raiding indiscriminately.  While most people are unaware, State law actually trumps Federal law in all but a very few, strictly defined matters.  The Federal Government is constrained by the Constitution in what it’s allowed to do, and while they don’t follow the laws as they are supposed to, if a State were to stand up for itself and say “hey, this is OUR law, it’s OUR power, stay out!”, there wouldn’t be a whole lot the Feds could do about it. 

Washington needs to set the example, pass legislation defining exactly what the mechanisms are for legally obtaining, selling, transporting, growing, harvesting, using, controlling, or possessing marijuana are, and part of that legislation needs to include a clause making it illegal for any employee, official, agent, officer, or representative of this state, or any county, city, or municipality within it, to assist the Federal Governments enforcement of their own illegal drug laws within our borders. 

The time has come, Olympia.  Stand behind your decisions, stand up for your citizens, and stand firm against the Feds.  We are a free state of free people, and DC needs to be reminded of that.

Higher Education Costs on the Rise–Still

Just read a story at http://www.theolympian.com/2012/05/16/2107098/state-help-for-higher-education.html and felt I really needed to comment on this.

First of all, the main thrust of this article is “we gotta do something, government, help us, help us” in regards to tuition.  Tuition is being artificially jacked up because of government interference, and we’re demanding that government do something to “help” with it. 

The article continues to sight declining State funding of Universities over the last several decades.  A major contributor to declining state funding has been the Federal Government taking on an ever increasing roll in funding universities, as well as subsidizing loan programs, artificially keeping interest rates lower than they would/should be, and other things to “make education affordable for everyone.”

While this sounds like a laudable goal on the face of it, the fact is that this serves to encourage schools to offer programs that appeal to a broader range of people who can suddenly get a government guaranteed loan to go to school, regardless of whether or not the programs is actually useful.  It encourages the schools to offer more and more courses that, while appealing to some, offer degrees that are more useful as toilet paper than they are as degrees.  The schools encourage people to explore a great many of these programs, increasing the amount of time people spent in school, which in turn increases the amount of money the school takes in. 

The students don’t care, since they don’t have to pay for anything until later, and many of them simply do not understand that they are taking useless classes at far above market value prices.  The number of people being granted a degree increases every year, which devalues the degrees that others earn, and makes it so a Bachelors Degree is worth about what a High School Diploma was 50 year ago, as far as job potential goes.

The government has done far more damage than good in their quest to “make education affordable to all.”  By artificially holding down interest rates, while simultaneously lowering the bar to qualify for loans, and then backing those loans so the banks don’t have to risk anything, they government has created a situation where tuition can rise astronomically, raising the cost of education while at the same time decreasing the value one receives for that money.  It’s like inflation squared.  Education is a great goal, but it needs to be a personal goal.  If you don’t need to work hard prior to going to college, you’re unlikely to be successful at working hard in college, and beyond.  This is why 53% of Bachelors Degree holders under 25 are underemployed or unemployed.

So we demand the government step in to “help” again?

Kucinich Not Planning a Washington State Run

Dennis Kucinich, longtime Democratic Congressman from Ohio, has finally put an end to speculation about his intention in regards to a Washington State Congressional seat.

As strange as this situation is, after eight terms consistently being reelected, Ohio had enough negative population growth to end up losing two Congressional seats.  Kucinich ended up in a district that was merged with a neighboring district, and was forced into a showdown with Marcy Kaptur, the Dem currently seated in that other district.  After a primary lost to Rep Kaptur, Kucinich

Despite repeated visits to Washington State, even before his primary loss, and a fair deal of support from some local Dems who cite his anti-war, pro-union stands as major reasons to support him, former Rep Kucinich has decided that he will not be moving to Washington to attempt a run at Congress. 

I say that’s fine.  We need more Democrats in this state like we need more rain in Seattle, and Kucinich is far from what I’d term as a stable individual.

I do need to note that he has shown himself to be a pretty straight shooter in regards to doing what he said he’ll do, and that’s no small thing for a Congressman.  I don’t like a great deal of the things he’s done, but at least he’s not lying left and right like most other politicians.  That deserves some respect by default.

Protests and Riots in Downtown Seattle

Throughout the afternoon, I’ve heard reports of vandalism, protests, and riots in downtown Seattle.  While I’m not in the least bit surprised, given that people around here like to piss and moan about their lot in life much more than they like to actually do anything about it, I am a little disappointed that, once again, a group of people who come together to protest are invaded by ass-clowns who turn out to be destructive, ignorant crap-weasels. 

I don’t know how many people there were protesting whatever the “not fair” of the week item is, and quite frankly I don’t care, but the reports I saw said that there were roughly 50 people involved in smashing some store fronts, spray painting an anarchy symbol on a Porsche (guess that guy had it coming for being successful) and broke some windows out of the Federal Courthouse, causing it to close early today.  I’m quite certain that the majority of people, as usual, were peacefully protesting something that they strongly believe in, and though I may not support whatever issue they were protesting, I certainly support their right to do so.  Now, because of a few dozen a-holes in the crowd, the leading story on the news tonight will be about the damage.  Whatever message they were trying to convey will be lost.  And the a-holes have their moment of fame.

In all seriousness, I hate protests. The vast, vast majority of protests that I’ve seen are people complaining about something that was caused by government action, and demanding government action to fix it.  We desperately need the Feds to take a long walk off a short pier, but these people are demanding more and more regulations to fix some perceived problem, not even realizing that the problems they are protesting were caused by those folks in DC in the first place.  I support their right to be out there voicing their opinions 100%, even if I think the opinions they are voicing is mindless, ignorant, ill thought out drivel that they don’t understand in the least. 

Now we have a declared state of emergency in Seattle, with the police ordered to confiscate any weapons being carried (legally or otherwise – not sure where the Mayor gets this power, but it’s defined in the city code – I suspect the city code is illegal at the state level, but hasn’t yet been challenged) and the peaceful protest for <insert cause here> has been destroyed. 

I have a suggestion for anyone going to a protest. No matter what you’re protesting, or how peaceful you plan for it to be.  Carry pepper-spray.  When some jackasses get out of control, hose them and call the police yourselves.  Then the news would report about your peaceful protest, and how when a few people started to get out of control, the rest of the group quickly put an end to their destructive antics and called the authorities to take care of it. 

Boy, what a better message that would be to send to the nation.  Instead of “we’re a bunch of self-righteous SOB’s who can do what we want” people will see “we disagree with policy, but will vehemently defend the rights of others and strictly enforce legal and ethical adherence within our group, even while demonstrating against something”.

The Power Vested In We

Of all the Amendments to the Constitution of the United States, which one is your favorite?

The Second gives you the right to own and carry a firearm for the protection of you, your family, and indeed total strangers who need help.  This is a big one for me, since the police are just minutes away when seconds count.

The First forbids Congress from passing any law making an official religion, or barring your participation in any religion of your choice.  I’m not religious, but this is a huge one for a lot of people

How about the Fifth?  That’s great, too.  It protects you from being forced to provide evidence to a court that is trying you for a crime.  That could be the difference between life in prison and freedom for an innocent man or woman.  Or for a guilty one as well, if the police and prosecutor haven’t been able to come up with a solid case. 

What about the Tenth Amendment?  Can you recall what 10A does?  I’m constantly surprised, although less so as the years go by, how many people know so little or even nothing at al about the Constitution, Bill of Rights, and other founding documents.  Not to mention the additional seventeen Amendments that have been passed since the Bill of Rights.

The Tenth Amendment reads:

“The powers not delegated to the United States by the Constitution, nor prohibited by it to
the States, are reserved to the States respectively, or to the people.”

What does that mean?  Everything.  It means that, unless the Constitution SPECIFICALLY assigns a power to Congress, or the Executive or Judicial branches of the Federal Government, it is absolutely against the law for them to exercise that power. 

How many different alphabet-soup departments does or Federal Government have?  DHS, HHS, BATF, DEA, Dept of Ed, DOE, DOI, EPA, CIA, NSA, FBI, TSA, FCC, FAA, IRS, and on and on and on.  How many of the things that these agencies are responsible would be better handled, more efficiently, at a state, or even County level?  How many of the things these agencies are responsible for are even remotely necessary?

The FCC, for example, makes rules.  Rules that result in fines, sanctions  and license suspension for people or businesses that violate these rules.  That means it’s effectively a “law”.  How can that be, when the FCC is not Congress, and only Congress has the power to create laws for the nation?  Whether or not Congress has the power to regulate the airwaves is open to debate as well, based on the Constitution.

Nearly all of these “departments” create rules, and enforce those rules through fines, sanctions, licensure, and imprisonment at some level or another.  Damned few of these “departments” have any real legal leg to stand on when looking at the Constitution. Most were never approved by Congress and operate under the direct supervision of the Executive branch (the President). 

What a horrifying idea!  One person has the power to direct policy for the entire nation without even bothering to consult Congress on the matter.  That’s not a representative Republic, that is a Depotism!  A Dictatorship, even!  No human being should have that much power, and yet we hand the power, which inherently belongs to us, to a new person every four or eight years.  Then they pass a bunch of laws further restricting our freedom, and we get angry and vote for that other party.  Lather.  Rinse.  Repeat.  We go back and forth, getting screwed by the Democrats, then we get mad at them and we get screwed by the Republicans. 

Meanwhile, the people in the States, who truly hold all the power, do nothing.  The Tenth Amendment specifically calls out what is already detailed in the Constitution.  The power is ours.  The power resides with the States, which are run by the people. 

Get involved at your local level.  Tell your local Representatives, we will not stand by and do nothing.  If the Feds don’t want to follow the rules, we will nullify their laws.  We will pass state legislation declaring Federal rules void.  We will do so at a local level if we have to.  The Federal Government SERVES the people, it does not RULE the people!!

Help send that message to DC.  Support the Tenth Amendment Center.  TenthAmendmentCenter.com.

Christine Gregoire is at it again…

Well, the evil wench is doing her usual crap.  Lying, manipulating, and stealing from the taxpayers of the state.  What else is new, you might ask, and not without reason.  The woman started her run as Governor by lying and cheating her way into the Governors Mansion. 

So what is she up to now?  Well, there were two stories in the Seattle Times this week end, and if you put them together, it might just make you mad.  If it doesn’t, you should check your pulse.

First, http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016817276_statebudget21m.html

The headline for this reads:

Gregoire proposes half-cent sales tax increase

Printed this morning at 1041, this is the newer of the two.  Feel free to read the whole article, but to summarize, she want’s to add an additional half a percent to the sales tax, which is damned near 10% in King County already, for the next 3 years.  She says it would be temporary, but we know how that always goes.  It’s also said that this would bring in about $494 million annually.

The next story to read, from Friday 11/18:

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2016799736_statephones19m.html

Let’s just sum this one up real quick too.  Our state paid more than $500,000 in a single year for about 2000 cell phones that ARE NOT BEING USED.  Let’s repeat that.  The phone are NOT being used.  What in the hell?  But it gets better.  6679 additional phones were identified as being used minimally, which the audit defined as less than 30 minutes of talk time a month, costing $1,800,000.  The audit covered only the states largest agencies, so of course there are likely several hundred more ridiculous cell phone plans floating around out there, if not a few thousand.

How about this for a plan.  Any state employee who has their own phone will be paid for the use of that phone on state business instead of providing them a phone that barely gets used.  We could even go so far as to have tiers.  For instance, if the estimated usage is more that 200 minutes a month, you will receive $25 a month subsidy for using your phone on company business.  Between 100 and 200 minutes a month, you’ll receive $15 a month, and les than 100 minutes a month, you’ll receive $10 a month.  Now, if you want to spring for the $200 a month plan with all the bells and whistles, that’s fine.  Of you can go with the $19.99 a month plan the offers nothing but calling.  Your choice, but the state’s reimbursement stays the same.

Once again, we are looking at proof that the government doesn’t give a rats behind about wasting your money, whenever and however they feel like doing so.  Why worry?  When they are strapped for cash, they can simply reach into your wallet and take a little more.  There’s no shortage when you can FORCE others to give you more and more of what they earn whenever you feel the need.

To Governor Christine Gregoire, I say this.  Go to hell, you lying wench. Your term is almost over, and I couldn’t be happier.  You are a malignancy on this state, and we will be well served by ousting you from the Governors mansion.  The only regret I’ll have upon your exit is that you never managed to get impeached for voter fraud or recalled for flat out incompetency.  Stay out of politics, and retire somewhere quiet you hack.  We’re through with you, and good riddance!

Post Election 2011

Well, November 8th has come and gone, and the people that were interested in voting have already done so, or failed to do so.  It’s all over for this year.

Or is it?  Next year is a Presidential Election Year.  I’m sure some, if not all, have noticed that it’s already moving along.  Obama hasn’t really done anything but campaign for half a year now.  Then there’s the GOP debates, where one guy looks great in the polls for a week or two only to get knocked down a dozen points and have someone else rise to take their place.  The exception seems to be Mitt Romney, who has maintained a position in the top 2 – 3 on every poll I’ve seen.  This scares me, because he’s almost as conservative as Obama.  Which is to say, not conservative.

But enough of the national stuff today.  I want to go over the election results, briefly, in case there are any you missed.  We’ll start with the state-wide issues, then look at a few of the bigger ones specific to King County

First, the Initiatives.

I-1125 – this is the initiative concerning tolling, which would set a requirement that the tolling be done by the legislature, not an independent group of appointed folks.  It also would not allow for variable rate tolls.  It also would have restricted the use of the money collected from those tolls to be used ONLY for transportation projects.  I voted yes, but could have gone either way.  It failed, by quite a large margin.

I-1163 – This is the initiative that supposedly sets educational and background check requirements for elderly and disabled care workers.  They spent a little money on commercials talking about preventing old people from being abused by their care workers.  A great and noble idea, except that it’s complete BS.  This initiative changes nothing except where the required education comes from.  Specifically, this takes the education out of the hands of the state and gives it over to a SEIU, the Service Employees International Union.  I’m all for privatizing as much as possible, but to take something that the state pays for away from the state, and give it to a union who now will charge the state to provide services, and at a higher rate…..  well, that’s just stupid.  Remind me to thank the voters in this state for not paying attention, because this one passed with flying colors.

i-1183 – Likely the most talked about initiative you’ve ever seen.  It’s basically a rework of I-1100 from last year, and the end result is that the state would have to shut down their liquor stores, sell off the property (more likely let the lease go) and get out of the liquor business.  The state role will be enforcement, and only enforcement, and we’d get the privilege of purchasing our booze from businesses that are actually competing for our business.  Crazy, this whole free market system.  Contrary to the schmuck advertisements you see with the 14 year olds buying a fifth of Jack at the local 7-11, which isn’t even allowed to sell liquor under this bill, there really are no down sides to this.  Unless you happen to be the state and really like having ultimate power and monopoly over something that’s not your business in the first place.  As such, the voters saw through the BS this year and passed the initiative.  This was the most expensive item on a ballot in Washington State, ever, outpacing even the Gubernatorial election from a few years back when we ended up with 2 or 3 recounts.  You know, the one where the Dems “found” several thousand votes and we got stuck with evil and ugly for our Governor? 

Here’s the actual counts of each initiative from King County voters.

The number from King County usually tend to be skewed from that of the rest of the state, given that King County is extremely liberal, and most of the rest of the state is much less so, faring into very conservative in some places.  This year, the King County numbers look very similar to those of the rest of the state on the initiatives, as well as the Amendments to the State Constitution.  I was surprised, too.

The ballot measures to amend the Constitution both passed overwhelmingly.  8205 actually had over 80% in King County.  8206 had nearly 70%.  Seeing as 8205 actually did nothing except to change our constitution to match the laws we’re already following, I’m a little surprised that 20% of the people voted against it, but whatever works for them I suppose.  8206 established spending limits for years when revenues are flowing in, although it’s based in percentages where I would have really preferred an actual hard dollar cap.  It also requires the establishment of a rainy day fund that is specifically paid into in the years when we have good revenue, to be used in the years when we have a shortfall to avoid situations like we’re in now.  You know the one, where the folks in Olympia decided that they didn’t' need to cut spending, and now we have a $2 BILLION budget gap?  Obviously, there’s a chunk of folks in Olympia who would fail a Junior High level economics class, but I digress.  Here’s the actual vote counts for King County on these issues.

These are the only ballot issues this year that were state wide.  Everything else was school district, hospital district, water district, local, county, etc.  The big one around here was our County Council seats that were open.  Positions 2, 4, 6, and 8 were up for election this year.  Coming from someone who isn’t a fan of our County Council to begin with, I am pretty happy with the way it went.  I would prefer we had some folks that err on the side of individual freedom occasionally, but I’ll take middle of the road conservatives over the libtards we usually see any day of the year.  Here’s the results.

If you should happen to live in King County and want to check specific results, go to http://www.kingcounty.gov/elections/results.aspx.  You can find results for every election from the last decade there.  If you’re outside King County, I suggest you find the site for your local county department of elections.  Most should have results available for you to review, at least from the most recent elections.

On a side note to all the “No On 1183” folks.  Suck it.  We won, despite your advertisements having zero truth, and being so far beyond “misleading'” that they were simple, flat out lies.  Federal Law prohibits businesses from having monopolies on anything, even when there are valid reasons why they do, and will specifically require private businesses to take action to break up or avoid monopoly situations that are negative to the health of the business.  The justification is that it’s bad for consumers to only have one choice, and a monopoly makes it inevitable that a business will seek to take advantage of consumers.  But it’s ok for the consumers to only have one choice and be taken advantage of if it’s run by the state?

I’ll say it again.  Suck it, morons.  Freedom won.

Did you vote?

Just a reminder to all you folks here in Washington State, today is the day. If you haven’t gotten your ballot out, get on it.  There’s a couple places you can drop it off or get it to the Post Office prior to closing time.  It needs to be either post marked or delivered to a drop box today, so no more procrastinating.

If you’re still concerned about how to vote, let me help you.

I-1183.  Get’s the state out of the liquor business, reducing prices for consumers and increasing state revenue while at the same time decreasing state payables.  It’s a win, win, win.  Vote yes.

I-1163.  Maybe the dumbest thing ever.  Basically, it takes the requirements for training that are already in place with the state, and transfers it in such a way that it’s no longer in the hands of the government, but now in the hands of Unions.  Even better, it costs MORE money for the same training and background checks, but that’s ok right?  The state can just raise our taxes to cover the difference, so the union can have more jobs and more control over things.  Yeah, not happening.  Vote no.  You want to give more of your money to the State, fine.  Make a donation, I’m sure they’ll be happy to take it.

I-1125.  I’m really torn on this one, and I wish it wasn’t so all encompassing.  First, make it the responsibility of the elected officials to set tolls, not an appointed board of people who we can’t vote out if they tick us off.  Great.  I like it.  Let’s do it.  The second part?  Wait, what?  No more variable tolls?  Ok, I can kinda dig it.  I mean, it would be nice to always know what the toll was going to be, but on the other hand, the variable toll roads I know of open up to all traffic later in the day, and have lower tolls during less congested times to encourage more folks to use that lane.  That sounds like a win to me, but if this bill passes, it will be one price at all times. I’m sure they won’t set it too low, so we’re losing the benefits of a variable lane.  I voted yes on this, but only because I think the benefits of forcing the elected officials to set the price outweigh the ridiculousness of having it set at the same rate for cars and semis', day and night.  Whatever works for you, this is a bill that I can honestly say I don’t care one way or the other if it passes. 

I voted to approve both of the amendments to the state constitution because one really doesn’t do anything, and I think the other would help us limit how much more screwed we get by our state spending us into the hole.  Resolution 8205 cleans up language in our state constitution to match what we already do, which was dictated by a Supreme Court ruling.  So it changes nothing.  Resolution 8206  limits the amount of money the state can spend in times when the economy is wonderful, and requires that a certain percentage of revenue be put aside in a separate fund.  That fund can help continue the programs run by the state in lean times. 

I’m had to argue with myself over that, because that could obviously be manipulated, and I suspect it will, but I also believe that it will help limit how fast the state can increase spending.  Personally, I’d like a hard ceiling on state spending, but that isn’t likely to happen.  I’ll settle for slowing them down a bit.

That’s my $0.02.  Take it or leave it, but get out there and vote.  Unless you don’t have a clue what you’re voting for, then just stay at home until Thursday.

Lies, BS, and State Run Liquor Stores–The Tale of Initiative 1183

There has been a ton of controversy over I-1183.  Just like last your with I-1100 and, to a smaller extend, I-1105.  Mostly because people are either to ignorant or too lazy to read the text of the bill themselves.

Although, to be fair, I’d guess a majority of the people who vote wouldn’t even understand what it was they were reading, assuming they could take the time out from watching sitcoms to be bothered to read the bill.

The long and short of it is, if this bill fails, it will be because of lies.  It won’t even be partially because of lies, it will be entirely, 100%, because of lies.  I have not seen one single ad against this bill that was made of of anything remotely resembling the truth.  To the point that I think the people that run the campaigns against this initiative should be put on trial for blatantly misleading the public. 

There are two that I have seen on TV and heard on the radio that are just in-your-face with their lies.  The first one talks about the “new” 27% tax that will be added to the liquor sales.  It doesn’t mention anything about the states' current markup of 52% (on average) being done away with, so that consumers come out money ahead.  It also talks about the loss of revenue for the state first responders in this ad.  Amazing, considering that 27% is going to replace the current 52% markup, and the state will be making MORE money because they don’t have to pay the wages, lease, electric bill, water bill, etc. for all these fine state run locations.  It’s actually going to be roughly a 5% – 7% INCREASE in first responder funding.

The other ad, which is also prevelent on the internet, shows three kids, obviously under age, buying what you’re supposed to assume is a bottle of liquor at a convenience store.  It talks about increasing access to hard alcohol for children.  Never mind the fact that state-run stores fail to follow state laws requiring ID be presented an average of 33% of the time, as opposed to 25% for private retailers. Never mind the fact that convenience stores will not be allowed to carry hard alcohol, except in the rare cases where they are the only location in a specific geographic area that wants to sell it.  Never mind the fact that statistics on teen alcohol consumption show that the youngsters don’t like hard alcohol nearly as much as they want you to believe, and typically prefer light beer and wine coolers. 

If you haven’t voted, it’s your last chance.  Ballots need to be post marked by tomorrow, 11/08/11, or you’ve lost your chance to make your voice heard.

For more information on Initiative 1183, check out http://factson1183.com/?utm_source=gsearch&utm_medium=search&utm_campaign=Yes1183Target, or read the full bill at http://wei.secstate.wa.gov/osos/en/PreviousElections/2011/general/Documents/1183%20Full%20Text%20for%20VP.pdf.

Please remember, if you can’t be bothered to read the FACTS about something and understand the issues you’re voting on, skip that line on your ballot.  The only thing worse than not voting at all is voting on things based on what you see on television and hear on the radio.  In politics, unless you read and understand that actual law, bill, or initiative in question, you do not have all the facts, and an ignorant voter is as dangerous as a monkey with a machine gun.

Tribal Gas Stations–Gas Tax Refunded?

I ran across this little store on the Washington Policy Center app on my Android.  I felt that I needed to share.  In a nutshell, Tribal gas stations are required to collect the State gas tax, but they can apply to be partially exempted, and the state will refund 75% of the tax collected back to the tribe. 

Full article:http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/blog/post/new-wpc-study-washington-state-gives-away-gas-taxes-indian-tribes

Key points:

1) New tribal gas tax compacts negotiated by the governor require tribal fuel station operators to collect the state’s full gas tax rate, but then state officials give back 75%, or 28 cents per gallon, to tribes.

2) Since 2000, the number of tribal gas stations with agreements has more than tripled from an estimated 14 to 51.

3) Under the new agreements, the amount of gas taxes given to tribes has grown exponentially, from $5.31 million in 2005 to more than $28.14 million in 2010.

4) Since 2005, motorists lost more than $90.55 million in gas tax revenue to Indian tribes.

5) Tribal fuel station operators are consistently underselling regional non-tribal competitors by an average of 7 to 12 cents per gallon for unleaded fuel and 15 to 26 cents per gallon for diesel in most areas of the state.

6) Tribal station operators charge up to 11.5% less for fuel than their non-tribal competitors.

7) In one example, a tribal station is estimated to have sold fuel at a loss of 2.5 cents per gallon.

8) The compacts allow state gas taxes to be used for non-highway purposes, subsidizing general tribal services.

9) Under the compacts, details of the tribal audits that are required to ensure compliance are kept secret from the public and state DOL officials.

10) The compacts allow tribes to undercut private fuel station operators, give away needed revenue for roads, harm taxpayers by allowing gas tax revenue to be spent on non-highway purposes, and hurt non-tribal businesses by creating an unfair playing field among fuel station operators.

While I have a problem with this on several levels, like creating unfair competition by giving an advantage to one group, the key problem I have is the state violating the Constitution. Yes, I know, it’s nothing new.  The Feds have been violating the US Constitution for nearly 2 centuries, as far as I can tell, why should the state be any different?

The Washington State Constitution clearly states that the gas tax is to be used ONLY for roads.  Section 40 reads:

SECTION 40 HIGHWAY FUNDS. All fees collected by the State of Washington as license fees for motor vehicles and all excise taxes collected by the State of Washington on the sale, distribution or use of motor vehicle fuel and all other state revenue intended to be used for highway purposes, shall be paid into the state treasury and placed in a special fund to be used exclusively for highway purposes. Such highway purposes shall be construed to include the following:
(a) The necessary operating, engineering and legal expenses connected with the administration of public highways, county roads and city streets;
(b) The construction, reconstruction, maintenance, repair, and betterment of public highways, county roads, bridges and city streets; including the cost and expense of (1) acquisition of rights-of-way, (2) installing, maintaining and operating traffic signs and signal lights, (3) policing by the state of public highways, (4) operation of movable span bridges, (5) operation of ferries which are a part of any public highway, county road, or city street;
(c) The payment or refunding of any obligation of the State of Washington, or any political subdivision thereof, for which any of the revenues described in section 1 may have been legally pledged prior to the effective date of this act;
(d) Refunds authorized by law for taxes paid on motor vehicle fuels;
(e) The cost of collection of any revenues described in this section:
Provided, That this section shall not be construed to include revenue from general or special taxes or excises not levied primarily for highway purposes, or apply to vehicle operator's license fees or any excise tax imposed on motor vehicles or the use thereof in lieu of a property tax thereon, or fees for certificates of ownership of motor vehicles. [AMENDMENT 18, 1943 House Joint Resolution No. 4, p 938. Approved November, 1944.]

(link: http://www.leg.wa.gov/lawsandagencyrules/pages/constitution.aspx)

How does this deal with the tribes stack up to the legal requirement in what is literally our states defining document and basis for all state laws?  Clearly, it’s not being used for highway maintenance.  If they wanted to make this deal, which should never have been made, they could have gotten around this section by not having the tribes collect the tax, or only collect a part of it.  The section clearly states all taxes COLLECTED should be set aside in a special fund.  If it’s not collected, that doesn’t count, right?

Most likely that’s wrong, too. I haven’t looked into the laws passed on how, when, and where to collect the gas tax, but I’d put forth a theory that it’s written in such a way as to make that illegal as well.

This is a clear violation of the Constitution of this state.  How does it feel to know that your highway funds are being given to privileged groups to create an unfair business advantage, while at the same time depriving you of road maintenance that you were told those funds would support?  Don’t let them continue to get away with breaking the laws they pledge to support and defend.  Enough is enough and 100 times enough is way overboard.

The Problem with the Washington State Primary

How many of you have ever wanted a different choice in the general election, but have been stuck with Republican or Democrat, and no other options?  Lord knows I would LOVE to have other options.  There are MANY other political parties out there, the largest of which is the Libertarian Party.

The Libertarian Party is the 3rd largest political party in the nation (after Republicans and Democrats, of course) and also the fastest growing party.  Here's where it gets REALLY good.  The Libertarians believe in personal freedom and responsibility for your actions, and small government.

What does this really mean to you?  It means much lower taxes, because the government doesn't have it's hands in everything.  It also means that you will have a much higher level of personal freedom.  You have the ability to make choices in your own life, without the government telling you what to choose.  Libertarians typically believe that drug control is a wasted policy, and people should be free to do what they want to do.  If you feel like smoking a joint when you get home from work, that is your choice.  Whatever choices you make in life with have natural consequences that you have to live with.  If you OD on Heroine and end up mentally handicapped because of the experience, then that was your choice, and you are suffering the natural consequences of that decision. 

There is no reason why the government should be involved in many of the things that it deals with every day.  You would be free to make your own decisions, and reap the rewards or suffer the consequences of those decisions.  Gee, now why didn't anyone else think of that?  Wait!  They did.  More than 200 years ago, a rather large group of people thought of that, and drafted a document founding a nation on those very same ideals. 

However, in Washington State, we have what is known as a 'top two' primary.  This means that the candidates that receive the highest and second highest votes are automatically the only two candidates listed on the general election ballot.  Even if the third highest was only one vote behind the second highest. 

This almost always means that every position will have a Republican and a Democrat, and nobody else listed for the general election ballot.  Theoretically, you could have two people from the same party, but that's almost as likely to happen as having two people that are neither Republican or Democrat on the ballot.  It's just highly unlikely.

So, at least for now, you will be stuck with the choice of Republican or Democrat on the general election ballots in Washington State.  The other options are blocked for you, because of how our government chooses to run elections here.

To find out more about what the Libertarian Party believe in and stands for, check out http://www.lp.org/issues.

Washington State Minimum Wage Law - Friend or Foe?

I recently had a rather lively discussion with a family member regarding minimum wage.  She was arguing that the minimum wage law in Washington State was a good thing, I was arguing quite the opposite.  As I get rather lively while arguing anything regarding laws that I think are ridiculous, I'm happy that my family members are a little more in control than I am, and she simply backed down from the argument saying 'we're obviously not going to agree', and we dropped it. 

That gave me the idea to write a brief article explaining exactly why the law in Washington State is stupid.  Feel free to send in whatever comments you want supporting either my opinion, or your own opinion on this, but if you think I'm wrong, I can explain to you in no uncertain terms why I'm not. 

The law in Washington State, adopted by a vote of the people 1998 (Initiative 688), requires L&I to make a cost-of-living adjustment to the minimum wage each year based on the federal Consumer Price Index for Urban Wage Earners and Clerical Workers (CPI-W).  What this means, in normal language, is that every year in October, the Washington State Department of Labor and Industries figures out what the inflation for the year was, multiplies that by a really long number, and figures out how much to increase the minimum wage. 

The initiative was passed into law by a vote in 1998, and became effective January 1st, 1999.  The law initially raised minimum wage from $5.15 an hour to $5.70 an hour in 1999, $6.50 in 2000, and then started the calculations based on inflation for every year thereafter.  Since the law was passed, 2010 was the only year that the wage did not increase, owing to the fact that the inflation rate actually decreased.  For 2011, the wage is set to increase, once again, to $8.67 per hour.  While you may look at this and see 'only' a $0.12 per hour increase, lets do the math for a small business owner.

Lets say that you own a small sporting goods store.  You employ 15 people, not counting yourself, and you act as manager for your store.  Of those 15 people, you can safely assume that 10 of them are making minimum wage.  We'll further assume that those 10 people all work about 20 hours per week.  This is not at all an unlikely scenario, although most businesses would have more than 15 people running the place.

A $0.12 per hour increase, times 20 hours makes $2.40 per week.  Multiply that by 10 people, you're looking at $24.00 per week.  Now, multiply that times 52 weeks per year and you have a net loss of  $1248 per year.  So this business owner, through no fault of his own, has lost $1248 a year from either his income or his business operating budget for the year, depending on how he has things set up. 

Whoopy, $1248.  Not a lot, right.  Ok, so if your employer comes up to you and says that they're cutting your wage by $100 a month, what are you going to have to say about it?

Let's take it a step further.  What if minimum wage went up $0.48 (like it did from 2008 to 2009)?  Well, that same scenario above would have lost the small business owner $4992 a year, or $416 a month.  How many of you want to lose $416 a month from your income?

It keeps going from there.  How about when the owner is barely scratching by, and just can't take that loss to his income.  Well, there's one sure way to make that money up.  If you lose $4992 a year based on something you can't control, and you have 500 sales a month that average $50 per sale, you can make up the difference by increasing your costs.  Just add another $1 per sale, and that will cover it.  So now the owner is forced to spend time going through his inventory and determining which items he can increase the price of without making too many customers angry, and without affecting his overall customer base.  So now costs go up. 

How is inflation calculated?  It's based on costs.  If costs go up because of a law, that causes inflation.  If inflation goes up, then next year when L&I calculates the minimum wage, it's going to go up.  This, in turn, causes small business owners to have to increase their prices, or close their doors, which in turn causes yet more inflation.  Are we seeing the pattern here yet?

This example was based on one small business, with one owner who operates as the manger of the store.  Several years ago, I managed a restaurant, and the owner of this restaurant owned two others in addition to the one I managed.  The one I managed lost him about $32,000 a year.  The other two combined gave him a net income of about $25,000 per year.  When calculating the minimum wage increase one year, I found that it was going to cost him $34,000 to pay the increases, and this was assuming that we didn't increase the wages for the people who were making more than minimum wage at that time.  So that would have reduced his net income to -$9,000 per year.  Hmmm..... Seems to be a problem.  Once again, prices were raised to compensate for this discrepancy.  Of course, we couldn't raise prices enough to take up all the slack without alienating a lot of customers, so he ended up losing money in the long run, once again. 



Yet, the most frequent arguments I hear FOR this ridiculous law is 'people can't live on that'.  I'm going on the record, and my official campaign will be based on this.  Duh.  That's the only response I can possibly make to such a over exaggerated, simplistic view point.  Minimum wage was NEVER intended to be a 'living wage' for your average US worker.  Minimum wage was established to prevent employers from taking unfair advantage of industrial workers in 'sweat shops', which were mostly staffed by women and children who, at that time in history, had no real power in the world at all.  People were being worked for 18 hours a day, and paid little to nothing.  Some of these places had cots where people would sleep between shifts, and some people lived there full time because they could afford nothing better.  It was the equivalent of indentured servitude, and was a very harsh way of barely surviving.  Minimum wage and labor laws, specifically child labor laws, were passed to prevent this atrocity from continuing.  Slowly over the years, the focus has shifted to the point where people believe that it should be a wage that a person can support their family on.  This notion is patently ridiculous, and just not possible.  How in the world can you require employers to pay such a wage, for what is an unskilled profession (face it, if it was skilled labor, or something requiring specialized knowledge, they would be making much more than minimum wage)?  Who would then be making MORE than minimum wage, and thus be able to afford the products of the businesses that are paying minimum wage?  The is no way, economically, this could support itself. 

Minimum wage is a STARTING WAGE for people just entering the work force, with little or no specialized skill, training, or knowledge.  Anyone who is a hard working, contributing member of society, will be able to earn more than minimum wage simply by showing their bosses that their output is of higher quality, or they are more productive, or have the ability to do more than the other people working there.  However, if you're working for a minimum wage job in Washington State, it's difficult to every advance, because every year that industry is hit with a cost increase that they must somehow attempt to absorb and continue to be in business. 

The people who work their entire careers, going from one minimum wage job to another, never getting much more than that, never making it further ahead in live, are the people that the voters in Washington said needed a little extra 'help' by increasing the Minimum Wage.  They are also not helped one bit by the wage increases, that are constantly offset by price increases every year.  They WOULD be helped by specialized training, or education of some sort that made them more productive, and allowed them to contribute more to a business, thus being more competitive in the market place, and being able to earn a higher wage.  Most people have the ability to help themselves, if they'd just look for ways to do so, and they choose not too.  Very few people have no ability to help themselves, and those people are the ones that we should offer assistance too.  The people that choose not to try, even though they have the ability to do so, have absolutely no right to complain about their 'lot in life'.  If you're unhappy with your life, try to do something to change it.  Learn something new.  Seek advice from somewhere.  Ask friends, family members, or even total strangers for ideas. 

Here's a novel concept.  Take responsibility for your own position in life, and do something about it.