How Political Parties Get Their Votes

If you’ve ever wondered why you voted one way, and your city or county voted another, or if you’ve ever wondered by your city, county, or state votes one way or another, here’s some insight…

• Low to median income families tend to live in, or work in, large counties, cities or metropolitan areas than in small counties/cities/towns. This could be due to the availability of jobs, or accessibility to services established to help families in need of financial/job/social assistance programs.
• “Small” counties/cities/towns are more rural than urban, are less populated. Their populations tend to be either more affluent or more self-dependent.

The Washington State example: About one third of the voters in the state live in King County, the majority of which live or work in Seattle, the biggest city in the state. San Juan County, one of the smallest counties in the state, boasts a median home price in excess of $400,000. East of the Cascade Range, counties tend to be large in geographic size, but low in population.

• The job base in these large counties/cities/metropolitan areas comes, in part, from large companies/corporations with offices in those locations. Many of these companies/corporations employ workers who belong to a union. Thus, what benefits unions tend to benefit employees of those businesses/corporations, and as a result, those businesses/corporations are more likely to support unions than not.

The Washington State example: King County (the largest county in the state) is home to major employers, including Boeing, Microsoft, and Weyerhaeuser, just to name a few. Few of the state’s major employers base their businesses east of the Cascade Range – most of the businesses in these counties/cities/et al are small businesses or ag-related businesses owned by families – these aren’t big businesses with union card-toting employees.

• Large counties/cities/metropolitan areas - by their rural, housing project and commercial/industrial makeup, are less environmentally “pristine” than their smaller counterparts. Thus, elected officials in the larger municipalities aspire to make their communities as “clean and green” as they can (establishment of new parks, building moratoriums, increasingly stringent environmental regulations, etc.)…

The Washington State example – King County, Pierce County, and Snohomish County (the largest metro area in the state) are urban by design. In recent years, those counties have passed ordinances, regulations and laws to restrict already out-of-control industrial growth in favor of parks and scenic views. Smaller counties, like Skagit County are subject to statewide regulations that have been established to benefit the large counties. Those small counties, by their smaller-populace (and hence, taxpayer base) nature, have difficulty in paying for the state mandates placed upon them. The tax burden ends up going to the voters, who tend to move to larger counties, where the price of the same regulations is shared by a larger population).

OK – based on what I’ve mentioned above, the political landscape should be clear-cut.

• The Democratic Party platform (or, at least, the campaign platforms made by Democratic candidates) is directly targeted to benefit most of those who live in the large counties/cities/metropolitan areas: Establishing ever-increasing social assistance to low-to-median income families. Tax incentives to large corporations to generate more job opportunities for members of those families. Close association with unions. Heavy regulation of environmental issues to benefit the “typical” voter in those large areas. The voter “backbone” of the Democratic Party is the union worker, or the low-to-median income family living in an urban setting.

• The Republican Party platform (or, at least, the campaign platforms made by Republican candidates), differs somewhat from their Democratic counterparts: Tax cuts/incentives for small families to relieve the “tax burden” given from state programs that benefit others. Tax cuts/incentives for small business owners. Easing statewide environmental regulations to benefit municipalities that are not urban. By and large, both political parties (and their elected officials) tout the “streamlining” of government. That is, trimming the fat from ever-increasing budgets.

Each party treats this differently, though.

• On the state level, Democrats “trim the fat” by taking state funding from a program they deem as inappropriate or unnecessary to fund, while giving the financial responsibility for that program to counties and cities. Democrats may also “trim the fat” by redirecting the bill for a statewide program or agency to the voters, which (by the Democrat-heavy nature of the more populace counties/cities/metropolitan areas), almost ensures voters in less populace counties will be footing the bill for programs/agencies that primarily benefit the larger municipalities.

• Republicans “trim the fat” by cutting the number of employees for a state agency or program, while maintaining the same level of service. Republicans may also cut statewide funding to a program or service, based upon the amount of money available to the state versus the amount of money state agencies/programs want to spend. If the money’s not there, the money’s not there. (To use the supermarket shopping example, if you go to the grocery store with $100, you buy no more than $100 of groceries, instead of buying $150 of groceries, expecting someone else to put $50 in your bank account before the check bounces.)

Budget-wise, Republicans tend to legislate (or campaign) on the immediate needs of the taxpaying voter: less regulation, incentives for small business owners to build their businesses further, etc., and a greater sense of self-reliance by those that don’t own a business but are employees. Most voters who vote Republican are small business owners (refer to the small municipality demographic breakdown above), or people who have built their estate equity to a “comfortable” level, and do not want to be stuck with the bill for services that others have not worked as hard for. Republicans believe in “smaller government” – that is, less administration and dependence on the state (or county) to provide services that can be provided on the community level.

Democrats, generally, will legislate on the “longer term” – that is, expect their voter base to support tax increases in the future that benefit the low-to-middle income voters who live in the large municipalities now (thus, Democrats tend to win in statewide elections because their voter base lives in the biggest municipalities), or support tax increases that specifically benefit areas within Democratic strongholds, with those same tax increases benefiting other areas marginally. Democrats believe in “bigger government” – that is, services provided by private individuals or organizations on the community level can be better administered by municipalities (particularly by the state).

In Washington State, the split between the two parties is about 50-50. The 2004 gubernatorial election is proof that despite voting tendencies of the greater Puget Sound region, half of the voters in the state called for a state administration far different from that of now-former Governor Gary Locke (a Democrat), and now Governor Christine Gregoire (a Democrat). In the Washington State Legislature, Democrats now control the House and Senate. The Democrats hold a strong position to control the spending habits of state government. In order for Republicans to gain control of either body of the Legislature, or the governorship of the state, they will need to find a way to appeal to the majority of the Seattle/King County voter base in a way that they haven’t been able to do so before.

The Hypocrite Fish

The Washington State Democratic Party stepped in - badly - last week by offering a product for sale on their official web site: the Hypocrite Fish. Once the item garnered attention late last week by a Seattle radio talk show (which criticized the item as anti-Christian), it was pulled from the site. Demands from the public (and the state's Republican Party) for the Democratic Party to issue an apology, or some sort of statement about why they offered the item in the first place, have been met with silence.

I am convinced, however, that the Hypocrite Fish is not an exclusive "product" of the Washington State Democratic Party - a little bit of poking around on the World Wide Web on my part has uncovered a web site that not only offers the Hypocrite Fish, but many other items that are equally hurtful to the majority of the people of the state and the nation. The site also offers items for sale that are very anti-war, anti-Administration, and particularly anti-Bush. The majority of the merchandise for sale contains vulgar language, and would not be suitable for display in public, short of a heated protest rally against President Bush and his Administration.

Here's the link: http://evolvefish.com/index.html

I have no idea if this is the web site that the state Democratic Party obtained inspiration to offer the Hypocrite Fish for sale through their site, but I'm of the opinion that the Dems stepped in it (badly) by trying to cater to the farthest-left-leaning, angry, hateful members of society, rather than sticking to items that promote the Washington State Democratic Party and it's policy views.

I'm not accusing the state Democratic Party of "guilt by association", but they offered (albeit for a short time) an item that is currently offered by a site that sells many items less-than-poor taste. The Democrats should have issued an apology as soon as the item was pulled from the Party web site. So far, no apology, and with the exception of one Seattle-area radio talk show, this has not garnered any media attention. It's almost as if the Democratic Party is, once again, banking on a combination of voter apathy and a collective short-term memory problem by the citizens of the state.

Great recipe for those office Christmas parties

Here's a good one - Mexican Cheese Squares. I can't remember where we got this (somewhere off the Internet), but it's quick, easy, and tasty...

Ingredients

• 2 cups shredded Moterey Jack cheese
• 2 cups shredded Mexican blend cheese
• 5 eggs
• 1 can chopped jalepeno peppers
• 6 oz. whipping cream

Preparation

• Combine the cheeses in a large bowl.
• Spray an 8-inch sqaure backing dish with cooking spray or olive oil (I prefer the olive oil).
• Spread 2 cups of the combined cheese on the bottom of the baking dish (1st layer).
• Sprinkle the peppers evenly on top of the cheese layer (2nd layer).
• Evenly spread the remainding 2 cups of cheese on top (3rd layer).
• In a seperate bowl, whisk the eggs and whipping cream together until smooth. Pour over the cheese/pepper layers (4th layer).

Cooking

• Bake at 350 degrees for 25 minutes.
• After 25 minutes, broil for 2-3 minutes until top is brown.

Cut into 2-inch squares. Serve hot.

Enjoy!

Welcome to Droyne, my fellow blog conspirator!

Yesterday, I had a nice, long phone conversation with my older brother (known to you as Droyne, known to me as something easier to pronounce), and he has agreed to join my blog site as a contributor/co-administrator. To use the old BBS lingo, he is my co-sysop.

I think you will find his postings very fun to read. While he and I come from very similar childhood backgrounds, you will find that he and I differ somewhat on a few things here and there, so you will get a fresh approach to some of the rantings I've posted over the past few months. (He's a parent, I'm not. He works in the commercial sector, I don't. He pursued science in college, while I pursued music. He lives in a different part of the country than I. You get the idea.)

He's honored me with being a regular reader of this blog over the past few months, and I'm very excited to have him come on board as a contributor. I look forward to reading his postings, and I hope you will, too!

10 things right and 10 things wrong with the Christmas Season

I love the Christmas Season ("Holiday Season", for those of you who are P.C.)... It's a time to enjoy family togetherness. It's also a time to shop like crazy and worry about what to bring to the family gathering.

In no particular order, here's my list of the ten things that are right with this time of year:

1. Families are together for the first time since Easter or Thanksgiving.
2. Holidays generally make people kinder or sweeter toward family members.
3. Gifts from family members.
4. A chance to show off new recipes you've learned since the last time your family gathered.
5. Grandma's baked beans with bacon.
6. Turkey.
7. Spiral-sliced ham.
8. An excuse to eat mashed potatoes, despite a low-carb diet.
9. Cheesecake.
10. Catching up with relatives you wouldn't normally be in contact with.

Holidays can be more of a bust than a boon, on occasion. Here's my list of the 10 Things Wrong with this Christmas season:

1. Christmas cards - so much effort for so little return.
2. Holiday e-mails for everyone on your list. See #1.
   
3. Christmas lights. No matter how many light you put up, the neighbors either aren't impressed or don't care.
4. Office parties - If it's a potluck party, chances are whatever you bring will be shoved to the back of the buffet tray. If it's a catered event, the food sucks. In either case, you are stuck with making small-talk with the spouses of YOUR spouse, while he/she plays the social butterfly. You end up as the designated driver for the evening.
5. Holiday cooking - you think will "wow" your family with a new recipe. You haven't made it before, as it is a "holiday" recipe. You follow the recipe directions, hope for the best, and the result is NOT what you see in the picture caption on the recipe page. You take it to the family gathering, all the while saying things like, "I'm sure it will be better next time," or "this is a new recipe."
6. The Christmas Tree - After selecting a tree, you need to find an appropriate spot to put it in your home. Over the course of the 365 days, you've got more stuff in your home than at this time last year. Now, you've got no room for the tree. Nice job, buddy.
   
7. Gift for the spouse - After spending a month dealing with decorations, what to cook for the family gathering, etc., you haven't picked out the PERFECT gift for your spouse.
8. You've already bought the PERFECT gift for the spouse - In my case, I had a star named after my spouse a couple of years ago. That whole year, I was the ultimate hero in her eyes. What gift can better that? Nothing I can think of. Guess I'll get her slippers or something this year...
9. Disigenuous holiday greetings - "Happy Holidays" when you know the greeter wants to say" Merry Christmas" or "Happy Hannukah".
10. Time off for the kids at this time of year, when you have to work!

Fond Friends

While backing-up some files today, I came across a PDF file containing part of the first edition of Advanced Dungeons & Dragons book, "Dieties & Demigods". This got me thinking about the group of friends that led me to download this gem...

Admittedly, I didn't have too many friends as a child (I don't have too many now, come to think of it). While most children my age (70s-early 80s/grade-school through junior high) were involved in sports, I was reading archaeology textbooks and encyclopedias - I was considered by many of my peers to be a bit of a brainiac, to which I have no complaints. I was fortunate enough to be included in Washington State's initial effort at a Gifted Program, which I was a part of through my public schooling. However, at that time, for a book-minded kid like myself to "fit in"(socially) was difficult, at best. Here's where Dungeons & Dragons came into play.

The state's Gifted Program was in it's infancy, and as such, "gifted" classrooms were organized by 2 years at a time - that is, when the program was implemented, I was in the 5th grade, and was put in a classroom with 5th and 6th-graders. It was there that I became part of a close-knit group of kids - the D&D group - Jim Hudson, Eric Anderson, Lee Gladen, Kenny Martin, Simon Britnell, and yours truly.

Individually, our members scored at the top of the IQ test, scored in the higher brackets for the SAT, and were otherwise brainiacs. I think what drew us to become so close-knit, though, was the creative thinking required to play Dungeons & Dragons (this is during the early days of the game, before the game got all that bad press about it, but I'll get into that some other time). We would gather every week (usually in the loft above Kenny's church) to play D&D. After a few years, we met in eachothers living rooms, and a new member, Dan Sauter, joined in the fun.

I did not participate much as a Dungeon Master (the non-playing "referee/rulemaker/narrator" of the D&D adventure players are on), nor did Simon or Kenny. Jim, Eric, and Lee did the bulk of the DMing, and the bulk of the "sleep-over" D&D sessions were held at either Eric's or Lee's houses. Eric and Lee were brutal DMs, and Eric often took the time to build models of the "dungeons" we were to adventure in. It was a full-blown affair.

Years have passed, and the D&D group drifted apart. Last I heard from Dan, he was an officer in the Coast Guard. The last time I saw Eric, he was one of Jim's roommates at the University of Washington. Simon, who moved back to New Zealand around the time I entered high school, passed away a couple of years ago from a rare disease. I haven't heard of Kenny's whereabouts since high school. For a couple of years in college, I lived with Lee's younger brother, Jeff. Didn't get any correspodence from Lee then, and I still don't know what he's doing these days. Jim and I, however, have kept contact with eachother, and we regard eachother as "brothers".

I'd give an arm and a leg to have a reunion of this group of childhood friends - we gave eachother a sense of belonging that other folks didn't. Good guys, I wish I knew what they were up to.

Another Bill O'Mara Bobble Head Doll

A fourth Bill O'Mara Bobble Head doll has been added to the collection at our radio station.

For those who don't know who Mr. O'Mara is, he's been a TV and radio sportscaster since the late 1930's. Best known during the heyday of professional hydroplane racing, he was the first person to provide play-by-play coverage of a hydroplane race, and covered the SeaFair races in Seattle for KING-TV for years. It's his voice you hear behind any clips of the infamous flip of the Slo-Mo hydroplane. For the past 15 years or so, he has been sports director for our radio station. He's 88 years old now, and the general manager and I give him a hard time during the morning news block each weekday. These days, Mr. O'Mara's sports picks are dubious - we jokingly say that he couldn't pick a Toyota hatchback from a lot full of Cadillac Sevilles.

For a few years, we were joking on the air about getting some Bill O'Mara bobble head dolls made. This year, we found out just how expensive such a venture would be. So, we opted for the "low-tech" approach - take some snaps of Bill's head, then scotch tape them onto existing bobble head dolls. The collection grows as we get new dolls, and we've got four so far. Bill loves the doll idea, and hams it up in front of the camera each time we get a new doll for the collection (note: he wears a different hat each time).

If you'd like to download your own copy of the four dolls, you can get the picture here.

Those Wacky TV Reports When It Snows

I'm no expert on the inner workings of the TV broadcast industry. I'm a TV consumer, just like you. When the snow falls, though, I laugh out loud as to how typical winter weather is portrayed by stations in western Washington.

If you live in Washington state, or have access to the major TV stations in Washington state, just watch their reports... You'll see that I'm right!

Every winter, area TV stations send their junior-most reporter to either Snoqualmie Pass (the most-used mountain pass in the state) or some obscure location in Seattle, usually in the middle of the night or early in the morning, to give a "live, exclusive, breaking-news" report on the weather. The news anchors (sitting comfortably in their Seattle studio) try their darndest to ad-lib an intro the report to describe the weather as if the world is coming to an end, and viewers should stay tuned for updates. The video feed cuts to the junior reporter, who either kicks at the snow on the curb or tries to pick up a handful of snow to illustrate visually just how dire the weather is. All this while, the reporter is merely reiterating what that station's weatherperson has been saying all morning long - it's snowing.

I realize TV is a visual media, but it's almost as if those TV stations think their watchers, myself included, can't get it through their heads that there is snow on the ground unless we see someone standing along a roadway with snow falling in the background. In my opinion, the already extensive weather coverage given by TV stations during a storm of any magnitude suffices. To make non-severe weather conditions into a "breaking, exclusive, blah blah blah" news story is a waste of time for all, especially the junior reporter.

I'm starting to think that TV station management puts their junior-most reporters through the "snow story" situations like some sort of frathouse intitiation: "let's give them the crappiest, most ineffecive news situation possible and make them work their hinders off for some air time". Weather is weather, not news, and if it's not a weather-related disaster, it's just weather!

Snow Falling in Northwest Washington

Well, winter weather has finally arrived in northwest Washington state, and I am dreading it's arrival.

Now, I love the snow. I really do. Some of my fomdest childhood memories are of playing in the snow, and the arrival of snow in my Puget Sound community put an exclamation point on the Christmas season. During my early adulthood, I lived in central Washington (10 years). Each winter during that time, we typically were snowed upon from Halloween through mid March (one year, we got snow in late April!)... Each winter would bring about 6-10 feet (feet!) of snow accumulation, and the resulting sales of snow removal folks would be an advertising boon for the radio station I worked at each year. People in central Washington knew how to drive in the snow, and school-age kids and their parents dutifully tuned into our station for school closure/delay information. It was the kind of Winter Wonderland that would make a person smile.

Ten years ago, after moving back to western Washington to work at my current radio station, I learned how different snow affects people west of the Cascade Mountains...

For starters, people in western Washington have no clue how to drive in the snow. Think of all the tips your driving instructor gave you for winter weather driving, then throw them away. Far away. The collective Puget Sound populace is so accustomed to rainy road conditions (which, by the way, they know how to deal with very well) that they seem to think snow is just like rain. A massive pile-up on Interstate 5 today that has blocked all lanes in the Stanwood area (about half-way up the state's main highway corridor) is testament to the inability of the common western Washington driver to function below 35 degrees Farenheit. In some of the major metropolitan areas of Western Washington, the inability of motorists to drive for conditions, coupled with lots of poor city planning (residential areas on steep hills, etc.) tend to grind those areas to a halt when so little as 1/8th of an inch is on the ground.

What burns me the most is the school closure/delay situation. While in central Washington, folks would simply listen to the radio for the information they need, but students and parents in western Washington, particularly in my neck of the woods, generally seem to think that making any effort to listen to the radio for the information they need is either beneath them or is just not part of their thinking process. As western Washington can't deal with snow properly, I'll end up giving a very long list of school closures and delays at the slightest hint of the white stuff. What typically happens is, once I get done reading the list on the air that I worked my buns off to gather, I get phone call after phone call from people who:

1. Were listening to the radio, but weren't paying attention while I was reading the list.
2. Weren't listening to the radio.
3. Say they aren't listening to the radio, while you can hear our station in the background on their end.
4. Students who aren't listening for school updates, but figure that they can get an excuse to stay home for the day by calling the radio station.
   

During the morning shift, the station staff is our 87-year-old sports director and me, and I'm the only one answering the phones. Trust me, folks, I've got better things to do with my time than answer your phone calls (like, for example, gathering the information you're wondering about to get it on the air!)... If you want to find out about your school, please listen to the local radio station! If I had a dime for every time a school district couldn't get through to our station because the phone lines were jammed with people who aren't listening to the radio for updates... well, you get the idea. This is my biggest beef about being in this business in this part of the state. During winter weather conditions, radio stations provide information on the air, not via the phone, dammit. So, please, don't pick up the phone - listen to your local station for the information you seek.

OK, I'm off my soapbox (for now).

A small piece of plastic can mean so many headaches

The image you see in this blog posting is of a small piece of plastic that was kicked out of my HP 722c printer on Friday. This piece of plastic is not part of the internal workings of the printer, but rather, part of the mechanics of making sure the paper that is spit out of the printer comes out evenly. It's a part that that would, normally, be "unessential" to the workings of a printer, but as I found out, this small piece of plastic is costly in both time and money.

This small piece of plastic prevented my printer from doing anything other than a flashing light, telling me if I wanted to print any document, I was screwed. After a photo session Saturday (annual family photos), Wifey and I went to Office Depot and bought a new HP PSC1500 printer to replace the otherwise faithful 722c. I got the 1500 out of the box, set it up, and started the instal process (software on a CD to use the printer). 90% done with installing the software, I get an error message, saying a driver for CD burning software I have on my computer is incompatible with the printer software. The suggestion made by the printer software was to uninstall the "offending" software, continue with the printer installation, then upgrade the cd burning software. Like some sort of lemming, I followed the software's instructions.

What I didn't know until it was too late was that the CD burning software was bundled with the drivers that enabled my computer to recognize, and thus use, my 2 cd drives. For the next 36-48 hours, I tried deleting unnecessary files and backing up others by e-mailing them to myself at my office. Removing that CD software also screwed-up my Arial font, which is system-wide.

I downloaded the latest version of the CD burning software today, and TADA, I have my CD drives back. I tried installing the printer again. It gave me the same error message I had before, but this time, I deleted the offending file, and the install finished just fine. So, now, I've got my CD drives back and access to a new printer, but my Arial font is still screwed up. Tried today to download a new copy to fix that problem, but all I can find are web sites to buy the Arial font. Pardon me, but no.