Monthly Archives: December 2016

Posted inElections

Tim Eyman’s brutal 2016

by Andrew Villeneuve

Count Tim Eyman among those who will sure­ly be glad to see 2016 dis­ap­pear into the rearview mir­ror. The brash-talk­ing, brag­gado­cios ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer had arguably his worst year yet since estab­lish­ing his ini­tia­tive fac­to­ry around the turn of the cen­tu­ry. In this post, we’re going to look back at Eyman’s awful year with a blow-by-blow […]

Posted inHolidays

Banished Words for 2017

by Andrew Villeneuve

Every year since 1976, Michigan’s Lake Supe­ri­or State Uni­ver­si­ty has released a thought­ful and humor­ous “List of Words Ban­ished from the Queen’s Eng­lish for Mis­use, Overuse and Gen­er­al Use­less­ness”. Here is the 2017 (and forty-sec­ond annu­al) edi­tion, for your read­ing enjoy­ment on this New Year’s Eve: YOU, SIR — Hails from a more civ­i­lized era […]

Posted inPolicy Topics, Technology, World Commmunity

Obama administration strikes back at Putin regime for interfering in 2016 U.S. elections

by Andrew Villeneuve

It’s a start: Pres­i­dent Oba­ma struck back at Rus­sia on Thurs­day for its efforts to influ­ence the 2016 elec­tion, eject­ing 35 sus­pect­ed Russ­ian intel­li­gence oper­a­tives from the Unit­ed States and impos­ing sanc­tions on Russia’s two lead­ing intel­li­gence ser­vices. The admin­is­tra­tion also penal­ized four top offi­cers of one of those ser­vices, the pow­er­ful mil­i­tary intel­li­gence unit […]

Posted inElections, Party Politics, Public Service

Thanks, Tim Eyman, for reminding us you’re incapable of comprehending our Constitution

by Andrew Villeneuve

Noto­ri­ous ini­tia­tive prof­i­teer Tim Eyman has been active in Wash­ing­ton State pol­i­tics a very long time — around twen­ty years, in fact. And as read­ers of the Cas­ca­dia Advo­cate are well aware, Tim has made sell­ing destruc­tive right-wing ini­tia­tives his full time occu­pa­tion… to the detri­ment of Wash­ing­ton State. The major­i­ty of the ini­tia­tives Eyman has […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

Seattle rallies to celebrate the Sounders’ historic MLS Cup victory

by Dominic Barrera

After an ardu­ous elec­tion year with shock­ing results, Wash­ing­to­ni­ans were in des­per­ate need of a feel-good sto­ry to close out 2016. Cue the under­dog Sounders’ barn­storm­ing through the MLS Cup play­offs. The unex­pect­ed loss of the team’s two top scor­ers and mid-sea­­son fir­ing of head coach Sigi Schmid set the stage for a sto­ry­book turn-around that […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

Go Jay Inslee! Governor proposes $3.9 billion in new revenue for our K‑12 public schools

by Andrew Villeneuve

Declar­ing that we have a duty to fol­low our Con­sti­tu­tion and pro­vide a qual­i­ty edu­ca­tion to every child in our state, Gov­er­nor Inslee today unveiled a bold plan to ful­ly fund our state’s K‑12 pub­lic schools and end the McCleary lit­i­ga­tion. “We face an oppor­tu­ni­ty — and an oblig­a­tion — in this upcom­ing ses­sion to […]

Posted inUnscheduled Programming

WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS!!!! Seattle Sounders FC win 2016 MLS Cup, defeating Toronto FC

by Andrew Villeneuve

Break out the blue and green vic­to­ry ban­ners — the MLS Cup is com­ing to Seat­tle! After many years of com­ing up short in the play­offs, the Seat­tle Sounders FC have final­ly won it all, defeat­ing Toron­to FC on their home turf in Canada’s largest city to bring home their first cham­pi­onship. It was a […]

Posted inBreaking News, Elections, Party Politics, Public Service

Republican Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-05) said to be Trump’s Interior Secretary pick

by Andrew Villeneuve

If news reports are to be believed, Don­ald Trump is on the verge of nam­ing Repub­li­can Con­gress­woman Cathy McMor­ris Rodgers as his choice for Sec­re­tary of the Inte­ri­or. McMor­ris Rodgers has rep­re­sent­ed East­ern Wash­ing­ton in Con­gress for near­ly ten years, hav­ing been elect­ed and reelect­ed five times. Ms. McMor­ris Rodgers, the high­­est-rank­ing woman in the House […]

Posted inElections

Starting in 2017, WA initiatives will require an additional 13,250 valid signatures to qualify

by Andrew Villeneuve

Begin­ning in 2017, the num­ber of sig­na­tures required to secure a spot on Wash­ing­ton’s statewide bal­lot will be increas­ing to near­ly 260,000, the Sec­re­tary of State’s office announced in an advi­so­ry today, The increase is a con­se­quence of turnout in the Wash­ing­ton’s 2016 guber­na­to­r­i­al elec­tion. The Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion says that the sig­na­ture require­ment for initiatives […]

Posted inEducation, Policy Topics

Tim Eyman pal Michael Baumgartner prefiles amendment to repeal “paramount duty” language in Washington State Constitution

by Andrew Villeneuve

In a fair­ly bla­tant attempt to get some atten­tion for him­self and steer pub­lic dis­course away from ful­ly fund­ing our pub­lic schools, extrem­ist right wing Sen­a­tor Michael Baum­gart­ner of Spokane has pre­filed a con­sti­tu­tion­al amend­ment that would repeal the mem­o­rable open­ing words of Arti­cle IX of the Wash­ing­ton State Con­sti­tu­tion (“It is the para­mount duty […]

Posted inElections

LIVE from Seattle: Special nominating caucus to replace Pramila Jayapal in 37th underway

by Andrew Villeneuve

Good evening from Seat­tle. I’m here at the Rainier Arts Cen­ter, where the Demo­c­ra­t­ic precinct com­mit­tee offi­cers of the 37th Leg­isla­tive Dis­trict are gath­ered to draw up a list of can­di­dates to suc­ceed U.S. Rep­re­sen­­ta­­tive-elect Prami­la Jaya­pal, who has sub­mit­ted her res­ig­na­tion effec­tive Decem­ber 11th, 2016. Because Prami­la is head­ing to the Oth­er Wash­ing­ton to represent […]