Another rout for Cream Team

From Saturday’s P-I, and still up on the site hours later.

(Aside for the fly-by-night mortgage broker crowd: Guys, the sub-prime and exotic loan market is gone. Go make an honest living. I saw a help wanted ad at Taco Time last week.)

Back to the ballot recommendations. Admit it, that list of judges looks like one long set of unfamiliar names. Actually, the Municipal League agrees, but there were two candidates that got the dreaded NOT QUALIFIED stamp.

Well, that looks entertaining. Let’s see why:

There’s C.F. (Frank) Vulliet, the “not qualified” candidate for state supreme court. He’s running against “outstanding” incumbent Charles Johnson. Vulliet’s story is straightforward: he’s a “self-employed, semiretired” attorney who isn’t allowed to practice law. He’s retired enough that he’s not bothering to keep up the continuing education all practicing lawyers are required to take.

A state Supreme Court judge who isn’t allowed to practice law? Sure, why not.

Then there’s Matthew Hale. He was described by the P-I as “ambitious.” Well, yeah, if I had the chutzpah to run for a place on the superior court after a mere three years in practice, they’d probably call me ambitious too.

Hale’s chief claim to fame is that he’s widely supported by off-road motorcycle and ATV enthusiasts. Why? Well, that’s going to take a little explaining, but Goldy at horsesass.org already did the hard work:

Hale’s opponent is an experienced judge by the name of Laura Middaugh. Middaugh is married to a state senator, Adam Kline. Adam Kline once wrote a hilarious e-mail telling off-road enthusiasts how little he thought of them. Therefore, several off-roaders are voting against Kline’s wife.

“I don’t care what anyone says,” wrote one dirtbike enthusiast. “She [Middaugh] is a lawyer who’s [sic] hubby is a lawyer who has a personal agenda. No way possible [sic] she is not going to support his agenda.”

Democracy in action.

I’ve heard of bars that were careful about underage drinking, but this is ridiculous. Down in Olympia, Gov. Chris Gregoire tried to head into a bar called Hannahs with her staff, but got turned away. Turns out she didn’t have her ID with her to prove her age.

Somebody tried to point out to the bouncer that Gregoire was the governor of Washington, but that didn’t get her in.

Which got me to thinking: How old do you have to be to be governor? Could we legally have an eighteen year old governor of the state, old enough to vote but not old enough to drink?

I took a look at the state constitution, and as far as I can tell, there’s no age rule in place. So, maybe the bouncer had a legitimate complaint. Sort of. If you closed your eyes and squinted real hard. Maybe having a beer would help.

Hang onto those reusable grocery bags. That 20-cents-per-bag fee was approved by City Council today, so guys like me who forget to bring their grocery bags with them to the store or market a lot are going to be contributing to the local civic revenue stream.

Meanwhile, for those with access to yard waste cans, the recyclers would really like you to be tossing your food scraps (vegetables, bread, pasta, eggshells, coffee grounds, but no meat, chicken, or dairy) and “food-soiled paper” in with the yard waste every week. (There’s been talk of requiring that, too, in the not too distant future.)

All very well, but how do you bag the stuff? Plastic bags won’t work.

Seattle Public Utilities hasn’t updated their web site in awhile, and they’re still claiming that biodegradable bags aren’t acceptable. Actually, that’s wrong. Cedar Grove, the composter, says you can use any of the bags from these manufacturers to bag up your food waste.

Then there’s the smell problem. For those who don’t want to haul every meal out to the yard waste bin, you might want to invest in a small kitchen bin with a lid to keep the odor down. You can buy a $30 model with a charcoal filter at Metropolitan Market, or something a lot cheaper. The coffee grounds will help to keep the smell down, too.

Hat tips to the P-I and LJ user maarten.

Back in ‘04, our election for governor ended in a tie.

A tie?

The problem is this: every election or poll has a margin of error. You’re always going to have a small number of votes that are screwed up in some way. 0.0045%, the margin of Gregoire’s victory, is well within that margin of error. So: it was a tie.

Unfortunately, the US election system doesn’t know how to deal with ties — remember 2000? — so it turned into a game of recounts and ill-considered court challenges. Nobody from either side covered themselves in glory. (Save possibly for Sam Reed, the Republican Secretary of State, who stuck to his job while taking enormous abuse from all sides.) Gregoire’s seat only became permanent after almost six months of legal maneuvering.

Republicans were bitter. Eastern Washington Republicans were especially bitter. Most of the recounted votes that put Gregoire in office were from King County.

Fast forward four years. Rossi is running for governor again. And signs like this have been sighted in Puyallup, Yakima, Ellensburg, and probably a host of other small towns.

Seattle: you thieves, you.

Not long ago they put together a spectacular mural on the closed-down Jack-in-the-Box on Broadway.

Which, of course, was almost immediately vandalized. Some human stole the section by Robert Rini.

One can only hope that karmic retribution will be swift and merciless.

Oh, and an open letter to the guy on LJ Seattle who claims that “it’s perfectly reasonable to assume this person just thought they were stealing pretty trash”: Wow, what great respect for an artist’s work. This was a mural, not some random piece of weird junk that somebody with talent can turn into a sculpture. The fact that it’s pretty does not automatically give you rights to decide it should decorate your apartment.

Hat tips to LJ users mr-sadhead and saavedra77.

In 1963, Bobby Bragan, the recently-hired replacement manager for the hapless Milwaukee Braves, found two envelopes in his desk, marked #1 and #2. A cover note from Bragan’s predecessor, Birdie Tebbetts, said this: “Open only in emergencies.”

The Braves continued to free-fall. A worried Bragan opened the first envelope, and found this message: “Blame it on me.” More losses followed. Finally, Bragan opened the second envelope, and read: “Prepare two envelopes.”

—

There’s no real point to firing manager John McLaren [mb], but he’s become the latest ritual sacrifice on the altar of the Mariners’ continued suck. The new guy might as well have his jersey manufactured by Manpower Inc., since he’ll doubtless be replaced in turn as soon as a new permanent GM is hired.

Here’s an idea: what if we started replacing the guys who can’t hit and aren’t pitching well? Just a thought.

Meantime, for John McLaren: Thanks for trying. You deserved better. Go prepare two envelopes.

Wait, don’t the M’s already have a couple of guys who can play center?

Well, sure. Jeremy Reed and Willie Bloomquist. Reed has a decent batting average for a bad team, .275, but he struggles a bit with covering all the acreage of center field. Bloomquist is a fast sprinter, but is hitting a measely .189 this season and generally does better as a utility infielder. Nobody’s being set on fire by the choices here.

Ken Griffey Jr.’s name came up again in news stories this morning, but they can’t be serious: yeah, he’s a record-breaking guy and a favorite in this town, but you can’t put him in center field. He’s hitting barely .245 and running on a pair of ouchy legs. He hasn’t been in center since ‘06.

Meanwhile, the M’s are still in free-fall.

You might want to at least give him a season or two, others suggested. Pat Gillick had mortgaged half the team’s future and was leaving just as the bill came due. Give Bavasi a chance.

Well, Bavasi has had his few seasons, and let’s look at how well he’s done:

Rich Aurelia, out before the season ended. Scott Spiezio. Jeff Weaver. Richie Sexson, the hardest working power hitter with a .212 batting average.

Bavasi had a penchant for quick-fix players, experienced guys who, in theory, could come in and perform at a peak level instantly. With a few rare exceptions, he wasn’t patient enough to let players develop into their own. His theory: ‘we’re one good bat from contending,’ or ‘we’re one good pitcher from contending.’ Well, um, no. For one thing, most of his “quick-fixes” were aging players, expensive and on the downhill slide.

So, with a $117 million payroll, the worst record in major league baseball, and a sweep from the NL-worst Washington Nationals to chew on, Bavasi is, at last, out the door. Thanks for your years of service, Bill. Better luck in your next place of employment.

Meanwhile, with Bavasi gone, are the M’s going to immediately get better? Hell, no, not this season at least. It’ll probably take a few years to rebuild. However, at least with Bavasi gone and some new blood in the front office, M’s fans can allow themselves to believe that someday, somehow, we’ll stop selling off our best players for aging has-beens.

Oh, also: for those of you clamoring for manager John McLaren’s head? Ichiro probably would have left town without him. Give the guy a break: he’s dealing with a breathtakingly bad team. Find him more than two or three competent batters and a bullpen that works, and we’ll see how well he does.

This, frankly, is a bit like the crew of the Titanic tossing one of the guys in the boiler room overboard. Sorry, captain: the ship is still sinking. The M’s are on pace to have 105 losses this season. If they achieve that dubious milestone, 2008 will surpass 1978 (104 losses) as the worst season in the Mariners’ mostly pain-filled history. Firing the batting coach isn’t going to magically give you new batters for the #2, #3 and #4 spots, and it’s not going to fix up any of the pitcher’s arms either.

Pentland is being replaced by Lee Elia, who Geoff Baker points out is 70 years old, semi-retired, and an obvious temporary baling-wire-and-duct-tape “fix”.

Honestly, this season is already a write-off, but I’d feel better if they’d start working on some longer term fixes. Such as: replace the guy actually responsible for hiring all these mediocre bats, Bill Bavasi. There are days I wonder if he’s secretly still being paid by the Angels. He’s emptied out our farm system, overpaid grievously for poor returns, and given us years of cellar-dweller baseball. How much longer are Chuck Armstrong (team president) and Howard Lincoln (CEO) going to put up with this?