Offering frequent news and analysis from the majestic Evergreen State and beyond, The Cascadia Advocate is the Northwest Progressive Institute's unconventional perspective on world, national, and local politics.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

Radio initiatives

P-I reporter Bill Virgin has a column this morning about two initiatives that Northwest Progressive Institute divisions are heavily engaged in fighting, and which are also getting a lot of exposure from conservative talk radio.

The two are I-900, sponsored by Tim Eyman, which Permanent Defense is fighting (I-900 is being championed by Mike Siegel on KTTH) and I-912, sponsored by Jane Milhans, which Washington Defense is fighting (I-912 is being spearheaded by KVI's Kirby Wilbur and John Carlson).

Of course, Virgin doesn't talk much about the negative consequences of either initiative; he focused his article on the angle of talk radio's role in promoting and driving both.

But there are serious consequences to both of these ill-concieved initiatives, and you can find out what those consequences are at Permanent Defense & Washington Defense (links above).

Virgin also writes that:
Both Siegel and Wilbur say they'll include opponents of the initiatives on their shows, though neither expects the performance audit issue to generate as much opposition as repeal of the gasoline tax. "It's not a liberal-conservative issue, it's an accounting mechanism," Siegel says of I-900.

In fact, he adds, the two initiatives actually "dovetail well with each other." Had performance audits been in place years ago, he says, more money might be available now for highway projects, he says.
That's odd - Permanent Defense is the main opposition to Initiative 900, but we've recieved no invitation from Mike Siegel to appear on his show yet.

Siegel's claim that Initiative 900 "dovetails" well with Initiative 912 is bogus. I-900 is an audit overload that forces our state to spend $45 million a year (which the state doesn't have) auditing everything from Metro to cemetery districts. I-900 has major flaws, and unlike HB 1064 - which was passed by the Legislature and subsequently signed into law by Governor Christine Gregoire - I-900 was drafted without public input.

With the high cost of implementing I-900, Siegel's claim that the state might have more money for highway projects is false at worse and dubious at best.

As I have mentioned before though, I was on Kirby Wilbur's show yesterday, and David Goldstein of HorsesAss.org has been appearing there frequently as well. Both of us have been highly critical of KVI's campaign. So KVI's hosts have certainly been willing to host their opponents on air, and we're appreciative of that.

Since Virgin doesn't offer his readers any criticism of these proposals, we urge you to visit Permanent Defense and Washington Defense to get the other side of the story about these nefarious proposals.

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