Mistake by the lake
This is a lot more interesting than the Apple Cup:
A group of Washington State University alumni told a legislative task force Monday that lawmakers should turn down the $150 million request from the University of Washington for renovations to Husky Stadium.
Yes, at a time when the governor has asked the state’s colleges to whack budgets by up to 20 percent and university presidents have been shamed into taking pay cuts, football fans are still pushing this low-priority luxury item.
During a break in testimony, wealthy Husky booster Ron Crockett called the WSU alumni “fools.” Sen. Ed Murray, D-Seattle, also tore into them: “I think you are launching a provincial and parochial war.”
Husky Stadium is in Murray’s district. Probably just a coincidence.
Here’s hoping the Cougs kick butt in this contest, too.
The No Duh Index. So the stock market drops 680 points Monday on news that the economy is officially in a recession and has been for almost a year?
What, investors were holding out hope that all of those layoffs, bailouts, home foreclosures, banking failures, bankruptcies, pay cuts and miserable days on Wall Street were indicative of economic expansion? Seriously?
Desperate measure. This time the CEOs of General Motors and Ford are driving hybrid cars to Washington, D.C., in search of a bailout.
From luxury corporate jets to piloting their own products. Must be awful for them.
Reefer madness. I’m just catching up on the third season of “The Wire.” I didn’t think anything would ever surpass “Band of Brothers,” but this does. The show focuses on the inner-city drug trade in Baltimore and the fruitless attempts by the Police Department to shut it down. Instead of a War on Drugs, it’s a War on the Underclass.
This has played out in cities across the country for the past two to three decades, and it’s been a colossal waste of human life and taxpayer money.
I only bring it up because President-elect Barack Obama’s pick as attorney general isn’t likely to bring change when it comes to combating the drug problem. When Eric Holder was U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia, he pushed for harsh sentences for marijuana offenses. This is precisely the attitude that has caused the United States to incarcerate people at a much higher rate than other developed nations.
Vast sums have been spent on jails, prisons, prosecutors, public defenders and probation officers when spending on drug treatment, diversion programs and mental health care would’ve provided more cost-effective solutions.
Obama claims he wants progressive solutions for nonviolent drug offenders, but his pick as the nation’s top law enforcement official is not encouraging. What’s more, when Holder was with the U.S. Justice Department, he played a role in President Clinton’s pardon of Marc Rich, a billionaire who fled the country to avoid prosecution for tax evasion and making illegal deals with Iran during the 1979 hostage crisis.
Well, at least he wasn’t selling joints.