The US Department of Transportation is getting ready to release a commission based study of the future of highway funding arguing for a high tech tolling solution. The folks at the Discovery Institute, whom I've been railing at lately for their support of a financially questionable bore tunnel proposal for downtown Seattle, have done a great job at predicting the likely recommendations of this Commission.

They are arguing for a concept called VMT, vehicle miles travelled, presumably technologically similar to the GPS based system now before the state of Oregon. Gas taxes will be gradually phased out, though, personally, those words are as questionable as the financing for the Seattle Tunnel.

I disagree with this proposal on the basis of what seems to be politically feasible for local voters, not to mention saleable to the Washington State driver.

I have a counter-proposal for advancing Highway funding based on what is already working in this State - HOT lanes, limiting tolling to converted HOV lanes with pricing based on congestion levels.

The Sweet Hereafter

Directed by Atom Egoyan

Starring Ian Holm and Sarah Polley

1997

This Canadian Cannes winner is a story about loss in a small, but diverse, tight knit community. The movie compares how this community chooses to do 'business' compared to the bigger world. It is quite sad, but reaches ably for the resolve of the survivors to live a good life. In this case the loss is a tragic bus crash that kills or maims virtually every child in the village.

Polley, the eldest of the survivors, is our moral voice for the community. (Hopefully someone we will see again) Ian Holm, an ambulance chaser from the big city signifies the outside world. The setting in the Canadian Okanogan brings this story closer to home. FWIW, though sad, I'd definitely recommend this movie for kids.

This YouTube clip is a bit of a spoiler, but not a huge one. If you are thinking of sharing this with your kids, this will give you a definite feel for the course of the movie.

On Thursday an ad hoc group released a study on 520 tolling looking at various alternatives, including tolling the I-90 Bridge.

Lake Washington Bridge tolling has been a big part of funding scenarios for the rebuild of the 520 Bridge. The legislature, concerned about general opposition to tolling in Washington 'State, started a project to study alternatives and, most importantly, guage feedback. Also on the table was the identification of likely 'diversion' impacts and ways to mitigate those, including among lower income drivers.

The amount of feedback was incredible - roughly 8000 letters and petition signatures, nearly as many via a web page, as well as a statistically valid phone survey. As typical, Commissioner Bob Drewel made a snide comment about public involvement, insulting all those citizens who participated as in need of 'catharsis'.

A Tale of Two Cities

Based on a book by Charles Dickens

1935

"Dickensonian", an adjective defined by this movie, appropriate for the current times. I'll say no more, less the academic english analysts will likely take me to task. I'll let Dickens speak himself, from 1859.

It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to Heaven, we were all going direct the other way -- in short, the period was so far like the present period, that some of its noisiest authorities insisted on its being received, for good or for evil, in the superlative degree of comparison only.

The Washington State Citizen's Legislature convenes today for it's 2009 season, and, at the risk of reinforcing Seattle centrism in media, let me throw in my solution for the viaduct replacement, arguing that the surface option is the best way to act now.

Governor Gregoire once took the leadership on this subject, but she has now bailed once again, taking along with her Ron Sims and Greg Nickels. Though she claims to have a solution proposed in January we've been hearing similar promises for quite some time - in reality the ball is in the Legislature's hands.

And on this subject they have proven quite able.

Here's that clip (1 min, 10 seconds) of Bob Drewel talking about public participation being an opportunity for 'Catharsis' - on a task where public participation, the evaluation of tolling, is the primary charge.

Fellow ad-hoc Commissioner Dick Ford sets the stage. FWIW, he interprets Drewel's comments as regarding his, contrary to my interpretation. Ford is very smart and regardless of flaws by association he has made legendary contributions to State Transportation Planning in many commendable ways.

Drewel, in contrast, has, IMO, made a career of being a bureaucratic bully. He was hired to head the PSRC after being booted from the Executive office by the voters of Snohomish County. In my opinion he chose to sell out his County in order to advance his career with the downtown Seattle corporatists. My personal experience with him confirms this, that's another story.

Here's my opinion on the subject.

I was in Olympia yesterday afternoon testifying before the House Ways and Means Committee about the budget. I repeat my concerns here for your edification.

The attempt of Christine Gregoire to cut spending for Performance Audits in her submitted budget reflects long standing opposition to sound management of the public's financial resources by Gregoire. This started during her tenure as Attorney General including this specific issue. This is a problem and goes to larger practices within the practice of law in Washington State and this Country. The question here is who actually controls public funds and how government has been manipulated by 'them'.

Rather than cutting Performance Audits the State Legislature should use this office to guide many of its cuts.

I was doing some early morning grumbling about some unusual traffic on the neighborhood arterial a block from my house only to be quite surprised when cops starting pouring out of the unmarked vehicles in front of me.

My Tacoma neighborhood has some great homeowners and a lot of potential - it's Lincoln/McKinley on the ridge to the South of the Tacoma Dome. However the owner-occupiers are less than 50% of the population, the rest not exactly the best sorts of renters. Tacoma's been a dumping ground for recent prison releases and we're one of the areas that gets em big time - worse even are the folks that whose next stop is into jail. I've not even looked at the sex predator list, but certainly have heard the stories.

We're not all that far from UW-T, so hopefully those folks will start moving in here at some point - at the moment though the best renters by far are the illegals. I'm in a personal situation where renting would've been the right choice, but I'm not comfortable renting to this market.

On a related note, on my return from Seattle last Thursday there was a very aggressive semi-driver giving new meaning to the term 'class A' - tailgating me as if I was blocking him, though he had nowhere to go. The trailer was from New Century Transportation, the cab a rental from Ryder. I wrote down an identifier, but I'm not sure if it was the plate or trailer number - R54126, in case anyone does a web search. This was about 3:25p. I'd be happy to testify if his behavior results in any problems.

Sunshine State

Written and Directed by John Sayles

Starring Angela Bassett, Edie Falco, Timothy Hutton, and Alan King

2002

This is another gem from the legendary John Sayles who has a profound ability to capture a place and its people. This ensemble movie will likely only appeal to those that have gotten involved in their local community as it does refer to many of the typical conflicts that manifest themselves as real drama in our real lives.

The story involves two old established neighboring beachfront communities facing development threats, one black, the other white - race is a factor in the story, but it is secondary.

One idea that this story implicitly raises is whether neighborhood segregation is not always a bad thing - in this case the two seperate neighborhoods do seem to work - including forming a larger community between them.

Let us hope that we find god, not the devil, in the 'details' of this countrywide racial transformation symbolically manifesting itself today, the holiday celebrating the life of Martin Luther King, one day before the inauguration of Barack Obama..

Besides a racial change Obama's rise to power also marks a generational change of leadership. To see the current situation we need to see this also in the context of the accomplished dream of racial equality. The age of Jeremiah Wright and deep bitterness manifest in political abuses is also, hopefully, over.

Though deep bore tunnel proponents are declaring a 'consensus' decision ending years of process the clear facts are that these folks have been delaying the process until they could turn this project into a boondoggle exceeding the realistic funding levels provided by the Washington State legislature in 2005. This consensus is in reality nothing more than typical Seattle PC bullying tactic from desperate folks reeling from recent losses due the financial crisis, including WAMU. Don't forget also that leadership of the deep bore team includes folks directly responsible for WAMU.

Local committments for additional funding are definitely appropriate, however the project already has an initiative filed against it preceding even a request for funds from the voters. Remember that a tunnel has also been voted against. Albeit this is not the same tunnel, but, most significantly it was the deep bore tunnel proponents previous prefered option...

Glengarry Glen Ross

Written by David Mamet

Starring Al Pacino, Jack Lemmon, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Ed Harris and Alan Arkin, with Jonathan Pryce

1992

New York financial salesmen are forced by tough competition to cheat in the selling of Florida real estate in this taught gritty drama.

The speech given by Alec Baldwin, the big boss, as he introduces the contest:

First prize is a Cadillac, Second Prize is a pair of steak knives, third prize is, you are fired.

America, each and everyone of us, the Country as whole, and every one of its companies, IS BANKRUPT. Sure, some folks, the oligarchs, have cash sitting around, first off the republicans controlling TARP bailout funds and the oil companies. But is having cash in an economy that is in reality nothing more than a giant ponzi scheme a sign of merit?

I think not.

George Bush turned us into a socialist country, and to paraphrase Marx, we are now entering the 'Bankruptcy Trusteeship of the Proletariat' phase of world history.

A brief word here for vitamin 'D' - the sunshine vitamin. I take it seasonally (400 i.u.) and from my personal experience I can't recommend it too strongly - it is much more than just an osteoporous vitamin - personally I think it even helps a bit with the winter blues.

At this point, if you don't take it and you haven't had a sun vacation on snow or sand you will be quite deficient. Personally, I notice the effect right away, and I think you will likely too.

$5 or so, try it out, it is worth the money - you'll likely also find you get sick less at the end of the winter. How much is that worth

(Confidential to Fred Meyer management (Krogers, I believe Southern based) - I made a recent 'one stop' trip to a store of yours to restock my 'D' - though you had a nice vitamin section there was not a single bottle of the product in any brand. Perhaps your customers know something you don't?)

Everything you own is worth less than you think it is.

Though the $700 Billion TARP, Troubled Asset Relief Program, is supposed to protect those 'asset' values it is doing exactly the opposite. It is an excess of finance that created this problem and nationalizing the banks under the argument of them being 'too big to fail' will only make it worse.

Consider this, with the passage of the first round of the Obama stimulus, we will have spent $17,000 per household in 'rescue' funding since February of last year - money that will need to be paid back.

Justification for the bank bailout was based on the assertion that these banks were 'too big to fail'.

Nobody, nothing, is too big to fail, not any bank, not any politician, not any corporation, not Washington D.C., not the nation's legal system, not even Barack Obama.

The proper solution to insolvent banks was to break them up into pieces that were small enough to fail - anything less does nothing but guarantee the failure of America.

The bank bailout money will be used to buy your foreclosed house.

The people who buy your former home are the ones who were big enough to have both profited from, and survived, their culpability in the unrealistic prices in the housing market - the same people who bear the responsibility for creating the problems..

The Seattle School District last night made the tough choice of closing 5 schools, continuing a decades long decline of that instititution. Most recently this had included racist policies against whites by their so called diversity office.

I heard an interesting statistic lately, not sure if it is true or not, but certainly a factor worthy of consideration.

Supposedly 20% of all transferred students will end up leaving the District. The amount of revenue lost from these lost students will actually exceed the savings from the closures...

Go Figure!