Rossi Has Personally Benefited from State Earmarks

Josh, you guys should investigate ownership of the Aquasox to see what Rossi’s involvement if any was here, and to see what if any profit he derived directly from this.

“Footnote: When we first reported the Aquasox spending, we provided a link to the WPC’s 2008 “Piglet Book.” It has since been taken down.”

That’s just delicious, especially when you look at the mission statement on the Washington Policy Center’s homepage:

“Washington Policy Center is an independent, non-partisan think tank promoting sound public policy based on free-market solutions.”

So if they are trying to bury something that would make Dino look bad, they’re not independent, certainly partisan, and not living up to their free-market mantra, either.

Beautiful.

The reason the link doesn’t work is because WPC recently launched a new website, which changed the file directories of everything posted (hence broken links) A simple search through the site will bring you to the Piglet Book, and you can view the pdf here:

http://www.washingtonpolicy.org/sites/default/files/PigletBookEntireDocument_0.pdf

-John Barnes
Communications Director, Washington Policy Center

Thanks John.
I tried the link in my original piece this morning and it wasn’t working. I’ll add that into the post.

Thanks Josh. Unfortunately there was no way around the directory changes since we went from a straight html site to a CMS. It’s unfortunate but was necessary.

Josh is simplifying the relationship between earmark and rossi. The owner of the complex is the Everett School District and it includes a football field, practice football field and some other sports-related building for the local high schools. It would be interesting to know if any of the money went to items beyond just the baseball stadium and if the rent went up in an upgraded stadium or remained flat. But either way, it is too simplistic to say that the Everett Aquasox received money to “upgrade their stadium.”

Today’s Simple Answers to Simple Questions:

When the poor or average citizens get money from the government, it’s Socialism. Socialism = Evil

When Rich/well connected people get money from the government, it’s the free market at work. Free Market = Good

Rather typical. If its not the democrat party, Pubicola brands it as evil. At least this site has never pretended to be unbiased.

Please report on what Josh’s DJ brother played at recent bar mitzvahs too.

So I read the BJ from the Kitsap Sun (you’re 41, Josh? Jesus!), and I just have one thing to say: Mike Allen sucks.

Anyway…Everyone benefits from earmarks, plain and simple. A recent poll actually showed that somewhere around 53% of Americans would be more inclined to vote for someone who brought home the bacon (vs. something like 18% who would be less inclined, the rest not giving a shit). As stated numerous times, it’s not additional spending, it’s directing bureaucrats to focus on specific projects out of their budgets.

And isn’t that what we elect people to represent us for? Sure, they’re there to support their states on issues and laws, but in the end, part of looking out for your state/district means ensuring as large a chunk of the pie as possible is being spent there.

And how do we all benefit? Well, the hundreds of millions that are brought home by our DC Delegation means that a lot of projects are getting propped up by the feds, and there’s a larger tax base (national) for that. Otherwise, we’d have to pay a shitload more out of our pockets, or just not have some of these great things happen at all (transportation infrastructure improvements coming to mind). There is also the cultural benefit (art, traditionally, was financed by governments and monarchs), education benefit, and employment benefit (remember when the VA wanted to close facilities here in Washington?).

So yeah, we could, I suppose, stop earmarks…but then it’s the pet projects of presidential appointees, not of the representatives of the people in the individual states.

Just sayin’.

Am I the only one who finds it incredibly bizarre that Josh has a brother who DJ’s for the Tea Party?

So if he gets rid of earmarks, Rossi better start kissing Gary Locke’s ass.

Another confirmation of the usefulness of our proposed “road diets” came out today:

http://blog.tstc.org/2010/08/18/groundbreaking-nycdot-pedestrian-study-recommends-testing-20-mph-limit-for-neighborhoods/

One of the studies main findings: roads with bike lanes are 40% less deadly for pedestrians.

More like Ray LaHood.

Like he cares about washington state, which means that there will have to be some good backscratching going on to get something for us here.

Confidential sources report “Hava Nagila”

Who in the world told you earmarks don’t add to spending, they just replace other spending? Wow. Having worked for members of congress on the approps committee, I can tell you the earmarks we requested didn’t replace other spending. I’d love to hear the rationale behind that statement.

Or, better yet – re-electing Patty Murray (who is totally boss).

I am no one to defend Dino Rossi, but as I was the instigator of the budget appropriation in question, I want to report he had nothing at all to do with it. Zero. Zip. Nada. It was part of a package of appropriations for the five minor league baseball parks in Washington that totaled about $10 million over two years. The largest share of the funds went to Tacoma and Spokane County for use in their stadiums. The rest went to Yakima County, Pasco and the Everett School District for those parks. The school district spent the money on a long list of projects at the baseball park, not at the rest of the recreation complex that is adjacent. We can debate earmarks in general and these appropriations in particular, but I believe this package of improvements to public facilitieis in five communities was worth every penny.

eminem, Nelly & The Rednex

If Obama gets re-elected that will give me 6 more years of work!

Randall, that doesn’t matter. The post doesn’t say “Rossi added Aquasox earmark”. It says he “personally benefitted” from the earmark as a part-owner of for-profit sports team that used the stadium to generate revenue. He can’t have it both ways. I believe there is something the Bible about casting stones.

Actually it does matter. Rossi wasn’t even in the legislature in 2007, he was in the private sector and that’s another misleading headline. Benefit or not, this is the kind of thing Olympia is supposed to do – build infrastructure and improve the state with our own money. It’s quite different in my mind from relying on Fed tax receipts to do the same thing and then borrowing ourselves blind because we’re BROKE. Funding these things before the bills are paid is a legitimate complaint, but it had NOTHING to do with Rossi directing it.

Just to clarify for you – nowhere does it say that Rossi was responsible for the Everett Memorial Stadium money, it just says he benefited due to the benefit for the Aquasox, of which he is part owner.

The reason it matters is that the obvious insinuation is that Rossi is a hypocrite. That he’s publicly against them but goes after them in private. This clearly isn’t the case. The guy who did go after it verified.

Then publicola implies that WPC removed the weblink to the piglet book claim to cover it up. This clearly isn’t the case.

I know scandals are the lifeblood of local journalism. But don’t go bending over backward to create one out of nothing.

No, he’s a hypocrite (allegedly) because when he was in the State Senate, he put earmarks into bills (or the State version of earmarks).

This particular article is just pointing out that he has benefited from earmarks, and so if he is so anti-earmark, why didn’t he try to have the money turned away? If he thinks they’re so awful, how come he doesn’t mind getting a benefit?

It’s a stretch, sure, but…well, this is Publicola.

No Michael, he didn’t do that either. He wrote the omnibus budget, not the capital budget. I saw the WADEM slams too, and I went looking for those earmarks to see for myself – they exist only in the capital construction budget, requested by Gary Locke and crafted by Zarelli. And even at that, at least two of the ‘earmarks’ the WADems laid at his feet aren’t even earmarks – they’re state grant programs.

And I can’t believe you’re asking me why he didn’t veto an earmark as a private citizen. When’s the last time you tried that, lol? Aside from the fact that the taxpayers *don’t have that power*, again the $433K went to the school districts baseball field, 1 of 5 fields btw, and not the team itself. And again, that’s what we PAY the WA legislature to take care of. That’s why we elect them and send them in – to guide the state, make improvements for their respective districts, and make responsible choices w/the money they garner from the residents. Not that THAT’s panned out particularly well either, but that’s another day.

Seattle Times has done a write-up on this subject http://bit.ly/datYY6 but what it boils down to are lies. Not mistakes, not errors, not ‘missing the mark on earmarks’ – lies. The WADems cited pages on their site w/out providing links to this public document for the obvious reason they can’t, which are *still up* and *all attributed to Rossi*. They’re liars. And Publicola is perpetuating it.

We send Murray and Cantwell to safegaurd the country and represent Washingtons best interests *as a whole* – not rape the treasury bestowing earmarks to campaign donors/lobbyists while the rest of WA biz can go hang, w/some flimsy excuse like ‘if I don’t do it first somebody else is gonna’. That’s pathetic and self-serving. Did you know that taxpayer money Murray directed via earmark to several of her WA contractors was used to build inferior product? That the mil doesn’t use this product? That the Defense budget has a hard ceiling, and the earmarks inserted divert cash that could otherwise be used on appropriations the Pentagon requests – but doesn’t get? They were never used – but no problem, it’s all free (other peoples money, everyone’s favorite thing right?) and if she hadn’t squandered it…well, she might not have gotten a nice little campaign contribution. Welcome to the cycle of political life. She – and others, of course – do this REPEATEDLY, while simultaneously bashing our Defense spending. It’s the most hypocritical bs I’ve ever seen and it must END.

On the other hand – arguing earmarks still looks better for Murray than discussing her actual votes in the Senate. She doesn’t advertise those with the same enthusiasm. She doesn’t want to discuss her protectionism of Fannie/Freddie, Clintons CRA legislated in 1977 or their part in the housing crash – she wants to point at Republicans and blame the crash on Bush. She pushed him back along w/the rest of the Dems when he tried to address them, and continued to protect them in the ‘financial reform’. Or run a baseless ad against Rossi for teaching a class on how to handle short sales and foreclosures while disregarding why HER votes have made it necessary. Or her Obamacare votes. Or the bailouts, cash for clunkers, cash for caulkers, Tarps 1,2, &3, ‘deeming’ a budget, GuvMint Motors, constant massive spending while raising our taxes b/c it’s Just Dawned on them that a Jobless Recovery means fewer taxes rec’d to support a govt they’ve expanded 25%, the repeated union bailouts while small biz in this country has contracted and the job losses mount.

Those are just her recent votes. Her past votes include dishing out social security bennies to illegal immigrants – that programs broke too but she doesn’t care – supporting unions at the expense of WA state farmers, voting AGAINST English as America’s official language, taxpayer funded Viagra for sex offenders, sending money to Mexico to PAY them to keep their own citizens, blah blah blah. She’s pathetic.

Guess I’d be talking about how much I love veterans too.

*ugh*…this is going to take forever…I’ll respond paragraph by paragraph. You are evol, though, you must know. My inability to resist responding to people that respond to me…grrr!!!

Okay – I didn’t say he did, I said that he “allegedly” did, that the earmark thing is what he’s being painted with. At the same time, I’m saying that this particular blurb isn’t accusing him of being hypocritical for his business in Olympia, but something entirely different.

And I’m not asking you anything. However, as a private citizen who is supposedly so anti-earmark, I’m wondering how many letters or emails or phone calls he made to his Congressman and Senators asking that they stop earmarking, before he decided to run for Senate. Unlike Diddier, who had to accept farm subsidies to be competitive, Mr. Rossi did not have that necessity in his position. Perhaps he was too busy teaching people how to profit off of foreclosures?

I am not defending, confirming, or denying any of this paragraph. Politics is especially dirty this year, and I wouldn’t be surprised if you were right.

Now this paragraph is where we have a stark disagreement. I firmly believe that part of the job of a Senator or Congressperson is to bring home as much bacon as possible – to direct federal agencies to spend spend spend in their particular states/districts. I would rather the Armed forces, for instance, buy airplanes built in Washington than those built in Alabama for a company that sends its profits to Europe.

As for the rest of your piece – hits on Murray, which you have every right to do. Social Security is broke because we have a system in place that caps at a relatively low amount what is paid into the program. Double that cap, and solvency is close at hand. English shouldn’t be America’s official language, prove to me that Viagra is being paid for for sex offenders, and what’s wrong with helping prop up a nation that is the source of so many illegal immigrants? I mean, we can sit and bitch about illegal immigrants all we want, but until Mexico gets its shit figured out, we will continue to have the incoming flow. And if we can help them create a safe country, and a country that has an economic base that is stable, that’s a good thing – for immigration, and for security of our country.

Obviously we disagree on who would be the better Senator. And we’ll see how it all goes down in November!