I voted for Rocky Anderson for President and Luis Rodriguez for Vice-President, of the United States of America. Although the Anderson-Rodriguez ticket had little chance of succeeding as far as actually winning is concerned, it was a campaign based on earnest principles of human and civil rights, environmental protection, non-imperialism and respect for the Constitution. I respect that, so I voted out of pure principle -- nothing else.
Barack Obama, despite showing courage as a politician, is a neo-liberal adventurer and a willing pawn for the corporate behemoth. Despite the incredulous Nobel Peace Prize he was awarded, he has greatly escalated the number of weaponized drones being sent into various countries, and despite the stated aim of going after terrorists, these drones have also killed innocent civilians by the hundreds, if not thousands, in the Obama and Bush II years. This kind of inevitable indiscrimination is not only bad policy, but immoral as well. Obama and his Attorney General, Eric Holder, have also passed on prosecuting torturers and Wall Street hooligans, and Obama has thrown the Bill of Rights under the bus with the proviso to the National Defense Authorization Act that allows for unconstitional arrests of American citizens or others without any due process required at all. It's amazing that this "law" passed with so little uproar by Americans.
As for Mitt Romney, his statement behind closed doors about 47% of the population said all you really needed to know about him. If he would have been elected, he would have been a very divisive leader in a nation that needs to come together more than ever.
I could have voted for one of several other third party or independent candidates besides Rocky Anderson, but the Anderson-Rodriguez ticket impressed me as being very genuine and honest, not that most or all of the other third party or independent candidates weren't. Sorry, you didn't win, Rocky, you should have.
- by Mark Greene
[revised on 11/18/12]
Nov 17, 2012
Nov 15, 2012
"Report" Sidetracked by Other Work
Northern Pacific Report may be less comprehensive about Newcastle government affairs than I would like it to be as a result of new work obligations that I have taken on, particularly during hours when it is least advantageous for this journalistic endeavor. This is the only reason why I missed yesterday's Park Commission meeting and why I may miss further commission and council meetings, in general, in the near future. As a result, N.P.R. may come to have less news and more opinion in it, at least until January of 2013, but at this date I am not certain how this blog will develop as a result of the new and changing circumstances. I will keep readers informed, however. None of this changes anything about my expected plans to run for the Newcastle City Council or other offices. I plan to make an announcement on this blog about my council plans on December 10th.
- by Mark Greene, Editor of Northern Pacific Report
[revised on 11/17/12]
- by Mark Greene, Editor of Northern Pacific Report
[revised on 11/17/12]
Nov 7, 2012
One Hour
City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 11/6/12
Northern Pacific Report covered the first hour of the Council Meeting, but left early to watch election results on TV. The first hour basically concerned Reports and Comments from council members, city officials, and the public. City Manager Rob Wyman announced that Tim McHarg will be the new Community Development Director of Newcastle. McHarg, who has experience in city operations as a Planning Director in Bozeman, Montana, was selected over two other candidates. Wyman also praised Newcastle Police Chief, Melinda Irvine, for a job well done in handling some cases recently.
Mayor Rich Crispo is concerned about attendance by Park Commissioners, implying that attendance was shoddy and that the issue needed to be addressed. Park and Planning Commissioners in Newcastle are all volunteers.
Councilman Steve Buri expects there to be a significant increase in auto traffic on Coal Creek Parkway because of traffic tolling on I-405. Presently, it is estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles use Coal Creek on a regular business day, and this could be exacerbated in the future as Coal Creek is used as a bypass from I-405. Buri brought up the issue of tolling Coal Creek, presumably as a source of city revenue. Going by the Council's general discussion of this issue, which wasn't a whole lot in the first hour, any actual proposal about tolling, were it to come to that, would have significant hoops to jump through in getting the necessary approval from other state and local government entities. Councilman Gordon Bisset implied that tolling would be very unpopular and that he opposes it.
There was also a discussion about transferring some public parks to private entities, but no reason was given for such a possibility in the first hour of the meeting. Presumably this would be a cost-saving measure for the city, but what would be the downside? This was another subject that was only briefly discussed as ordinarily would be the case for the Reports and Comments part of Council Meetings. It was announced, however, that there would be a further evaluation of this issue by the Council. Expected council candidate for 2013, Mark Greene, does not favor transferring any public park to private hands unless there is some extraordinary reason for it.
Regional Update: the King County Executive, Dow Constantine: anti-commoner, anti-democracy, anti-poor and anti-homeless.
On Commoner: "Constantine and the Seattle Authoritarians"
General Popular Links:
Party of Commons
Mark Greene for Council (Exploratory Campaign)
"Commoner" Blog
Commons on Twitter
[revised on 11/10/12]
Northern Pacific Report covered the first hour of the Council Meeting, but left early to watch election results on TV. The first hour basically concerned Reports and Comments from council members, city officials, and the public. City Manager Rob Wyman announced that Tim McHarg will be the new Community Development Director of Newcastle. McHarg, who has experience in city operations as a Planning Director in Bozeman, Montana, was selected over two other candidates. Wyman also praised Newcastle Police Chief, Melinda Irvine, for a job well done in handling some cases recently.
Mayor Rich Crispo is concerned about attendance by Park Commissioners, implying that attendance was shoddy and that the issue needed to be addressed. Park and Planning Commissioners in Newcastle are all volunteers.
Councilman Steve Buri expects there to be a significant increase in auto traffic on Coal Creek Parkway because of traffic tolling on I-405. Presently, it is estimated that somewhere in the neighborhood of 30,000 to 40,000 vehicles use Coal Creek on a regular business day, and this could be exacerbated in the future as Coal Creek is used as a bypass from I-405. Buri brought up the issue of tolling Coal Creek, presumably as a source of city revenue. Going by the Council's general discussion of this issue, which wasn't a whole lot in the first hour, any actual proposal about tolling, were it to come to that, would have significant hoops to jump through in getting the necessary approval from other state and local government entities. Councilman Gordon Bisset implied that tolling would be very unpopular and that he opposes it.
There was also a discussion about transferring some public parks to private entities, but no reason was given for such a possibility in the first hour of the meeting. Presumably this would be a cost-saving measure for the city, but what would be the downside? This was another subject that was only briefly discussed as ordinarily would be the case for the Reports and Comments part of Council Meetings. It was announced, however, that there would be a further evaluation of this issue by the Council. Expected council candidate for 2013, Mark Greene, does not favor transferring any public park to private hands unless there is some extraordinary reason for it.
Regional Update: the King County Executive, Dow Constantine: anti-commoner, anti-democracy, anti-poor and anti-homeless.
On Commoner: "Constantine and the Seattle Authoritarians"
General Popular Links:
Party of Commons
Mark Greene for Council (Exploratory Campaign)
"Commoner" Blog
Commons on Twitter
[revised on 11/10/12]
Nov 3, 2012
Greene's Announcement Postponed Until December
Update: the expected announcement for council by Mark Greene, previously set to be announced on Nov. 12th, has been delayed again (see revised post, below). Greene decided that probable local media coverage in January, a few weeks after the official announcement, would better be focused on the campaign then than in November and December.
Mark Greene has decided to postpone an expected decision to run for the Newcastle City Council, Pos. 6, until later on this year.
The Public Disclosure Commission has reviewed Greene's disclosure papers recently and they're presently presumed to be in proper order. Greene has decided to delay an official announcement until the 10th of December.
[revised on 11/6/12]
Mark Greene has decided to postpone an expected decision to run for the Newcastle City Council, Pos. 6, until later on this year.
The Public Disclosure Commission has reviewed Greene's disclosure papers recently and they're presently presumed to be in proper order. Greene has decided to delay an official announcement until the 10th of December.
[revised on 11/6/12]
Oct 30, 2012
Newcastle Library to Open on December 8th
King County has announced that Newcastle's new county-operated library will open on December 8th, 2012 A.D., 9:30 A.M. The public is invited to attend the Grand Opening.
In other news, Mark Greene has been considering whether or not to throw his hat in the ring for the Newcastle City Council in 2013, but there's no decision, yet. A decision will be made by November 6th and will be posted on Northern Pacific Report on either the 5th or the 6th of November. If Mark runs, he would definitely be the most fervent anti-annexation candidate of the entire field of council candidates and most likely would choose to run for Position No. 6.
Unlike other candidates in past years who changed the Position number they ran for, presumably
because of political calculations, if Greene decides to run for council, he would not change the Position number for any reason whatsoever, regardless of whether there is an "open seat" or not.
Post-script: The term "open-seat" in American political lexicon means that an incumbent is not one of the candidates for office, but of course the term is a misnomer since any office that is up for election is, in fact, open.
[revised on 11/3/12]
Mark Greene's Book on Elections: Elections: Reform & Administration
Party of Commons
Mark Greene for Secretary of State (write-in candidacy)
Commons on Twitter
"Commoner" Blog
In other news, Mark Greene has been considering whether or not to throw his hat in the ring for the Newcastle City Council in 2013, but there's no decision, yet. A decision will be made by November 6th and will be posted on Northern Pacific Report on either the 5th or the 6th of November. If Mark runs, he would definitely be the most fervent anti-annexation candidate of the entire field of council candidates and most likely would choose to run for Position No. 6.
Unlike other candidates in past years who changed the Position number they ran for, presumably
because of political calculations, if Greene decides to run for council, he would not change the Position number for any reason whatsoever, regardless of whether there is an "open seat" or not.
Post-script: The term "open-seat" in American political lexicon means that an incumbent is not one of the candidates for office, but of course the term is a misnomer since any office that is up for election is, in fact, open.
[revised on 11/3/12]
Mark Greene's Book on Elections: Elections: Reform & Administration
Party of Commons
Mark Greene for Secretary of State (write-in candidacy)
Commons on Twitter
"Commoner" Blog
Oct 19, 2012
New Commission Head
City of Newcastle, WA -- Planning Commission Meeting of
10/17/12
John Drescher was sworn in as the new Planning Commission chairman at the September 27th, 2012 Planning Commission meeting, taking over from Rob Lemmon (who is still on the Commission), as he transitioned into presiding over his first full meeting last Wednesday, October 17th. The meeting, similar to the last one, focused on setting the 2015 Comprehensive Plan (see Sept. 28th post: Paraphrasing Lee: "I Make the Recommendations, the Council Gives Guidance"). Much of the meeting, if not entirely, was about process rather than the actual specifics regarding the Plan. Associate Planner David Lee said that the Department of Commerce checklist included 82 regulatory items for the various cities and municipalities in Washington, and that 25 of those were statutory requirements, and of those 25, Newcastle has thus far fulfilled about half of them. Rob Lemmon said that there were three main considerations, and that meeting the remaining statutory requirements should be the city's priority as relating to the Comprehensive Plan, and money considerations and Council direction were the next priorities. It was not clear whether he meant the latter two focus points or considerations as being together as one (with presumably the third focus point not mentioned in his list) or as respective categories.
Apparently, wanting to counteract high-priced consultants with the spirit of local volunteerism or cut-rate salaries and stipends for the best interests of the city, Vice-Chairman Allen Dauterman said that the city should reach out to Newcastle's own residents for the expertise needed to achieve the objectives of the Comprehensive Plan. Lemmon, who played, in a round about way, the David Letterman role at this meeting, chipped in that the University of Washington would also be a good resource to get some of that low-pay or no-pay energy. Drescher took the conventional viewpoint in this discussion about personnel, stressing the need for expert consultants ($$$).
Attendance: all Planning Commissioners were at this meeting except Elizabeth Thompson.
Previous post: there was a corrective update in the previous post, "Chastening at City Hall."
[revised on 4/27/13]
Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM
John Drescher was sworn in as the new Planning Commission chairman at the September 27th, 2012 Planning Commission meeting, taking over from Rob Lemmon (who is still on the Commission), as he transitioned into presiding over his first full meeting last Wednesday, October 17th. The meeting, similar to the last one, focused on setting the 2015 Comprehensive Plan (see Sept. 28th post: Paraphrasing Lee: "I Make the Recommendations, the Council Gives Guidance"). Much of the meeting, if not entirely, was about process rather than the actual specifics regarding the Plan. Associate Planner David Lee said that the Department of Commerce checklist included 82 regulatory items for the various cities and municipalities in Washington, and that 25 of those were statutory requirements, and of those 25, Newcastle has thus far fulfilled about half of them. Rob Lemmon said that there were three main considerations, and that meeting the remaining statutory requirements should be the city's priority as relating to the Comprehensive Plan, and money considerations and Council direction were the next priorities. It was not clear whether he meant the latter two focus points or considerations as being together as one (with presumably the third focus point not mentioned in his list) or as respective categories.
Apparently, wanting to counteract high-priced consultants with the spirit of local volunteerism or cut-rate salaries and stipends for the best interests of the city, Vice-Chairman Allen Dauterman said that the city should reach out to Newcastle's own residents for the expertise needed to achieve the objectives of the Comprehensive Plan. Lemmon, who played, in a round about way, the David Letterman role at this meeting, chipped in that the University of Washington would also be a good resource to get some of that low-pay or no-pay energy. Drescher took the conventional viewpoint in this discussion about personnel, stressing the need for expert consultants ($$$).
Attendance: all Planning Commissioners were at this meeting except Elizabeth Thompson.
Previous post: there was a corrective update in the previous post, "Chastening at City Hall."
[revised on 4/27/13]
Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM
Oct 17, 2012
Chastening at City Hall
UPDATED FURTHER BELOW ON 10/18/12
City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 10/16/12
Alpha male, Councilmember Ben Erxleben, who always seems to dominate Newcastle City Council meetings, was chastened a bit by fellow Councilmember John Dulcich, who seemed perturbed by Erxleben's annexation talk of recent weeks (see previous post: Annexation of Newcastle: "Never"). Dulcich gave complimentary though desultory comments about Erxleben's accomplishments and efficiencies before making one exception, essentially saying that Erxleben didn't know how to read a budget, and asking, rhetorically, why Erxleben didn't resign his seat and move to Bellevue. Erxleben, obviously upset by Dulcich's chiding, suggested that it was a personal attack on him and called on (Point of Order) Mayor Rich Crispo to rule out of order the comment by Dulcich, if not all "personal attacks" in general by one councilmember against another. Crispo eventually responded by saying that members can say pretty much what they want during Council Comments, but there should be a modicum of respect for one another (it was unclear as to whether Crispo actually ruled on Erxleben's Point of Order one way or the order).
The meeting was relatively short, with the main business being the Preliminary 2013 Budget and Public Hearings. No one from the audience at the sparsely attended meeting (about eight-or-so people overall, including this writer and the Newcastle News reporter) decided to speak on the budget. Finance Director Chris Olson gave a 25-minute-or-so presentation, with various charts, about the official budget proposal. It appeared to be, basically, a status quo budget, and was presented as being balanced. City Manager, Rob Wyman, who along with Olson and the Council plays a major role in shaping the budget, said that basic city services and functions could be provided for under this budget, but there was little room for error within the budgetary guidelines and that the budget would be tight barring no revenue increases. Wyman also announced that three candidates would be considered for the new Community Development Director at an October 24th informal session at Sweet Decadence, a pastry shop which is in the same building as City Hall.
[revised on 10/19/12]
Update (10/18/12): It appears that before this post was updated today, that the matter about a Point of Order was in error, as Erxleben apparently made a Point of Order and it was to be ruled on by the presider of the meeting, which in this case was Mayor Crispo.
Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM
City of Newcastle, WA -- Council Meeting of 10/16/12
Alpha male, Councilmember Ben Erxleben, who always seems to dominate Newcastle City Council meetings, was chastened a bit by fellow Councilmember John Dulcich, who seemed perturbed by Erxleben's annexation talk of recent weeks (see previous post: Annexation of Newcastle: "Never"). Dulcich gave complimentary though desultory comments about Erxleben's accomplishments and efficiencies before making one exception, essentially saying that Erxleben didn't know how to read a budget, and asking, rhetorically, why Erxleben didn't resign his seat and move to Bellevue. Erxleben, obviously upset by Dulcich's chiding, suggested that it was a personal attack on him and called on (Point of Order) Mayor Rich Crispo to rule out of order the comment by Dulcich, if not all "personal attacks" in general by one councilmember against another. Crispo eventually responded by saying that members can say pretty much what they want during Council Comments, but there should be a modicum of respect for one another (it was unclear as to whether Crispo actually ruled on Erxleben's Point of Order one way or the order).
The meeting was relatively short, with the main business being the Preliminary 2013 Budget and Public Hearings. No one from the audience at the sparsely attended meeting (about eight-or-so people overall, including this writer and the Newcastle News reporter) decided to speak on the budget. Finance Director Chris Olson gave a 25-minute-or-so presentation, with various charts, about the official budget proposal. It appeared to be, basically, a status quo budget, and was presented as being balanced. City Manager, Rob Wyman, who along with Olson and the Council plays a major role in shaping the budget, said that basic city services and functions could be provided for under this budget, but there was little room for error within the budgetary guidelines and that the budget would be tight barring no revenue increases. Wyman also announced that three candidates would be considered for the new Community Development Director at an October 24th informal session at Sweet Decadence, a pastry shop which is in the same building as City Hall.
[revised on 10/19/12]
Update (10/18/12): It appears that before this post was updated today, that the matter about a Point of Order was in error, as Erxleben apparently made a Point of Order and it was to be ruled on by the presider of the meeting, which in this case was Mayor Crispo.
Copyright 2009 - 2012, Party of Commons TM
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