The Seattle Times: Ed cetera

The Ed Cetera blog is now Opinion Northwest

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 14:28:38 PST

We're doing a makeover for The Seattle Times opinion blog and changing our blog name from Ed Cetera to Opinion Northwest.

We have freshened up our blog's design and you can expect to see more interactive elements on the blog such as videos, tweets and interactives.

Bookmark our new blog at http://blogs.seattletimes.com/opinionnw/.

If you currently subscribe to our blog by RSS, you will need to subscribe to our new RSS feed at http://blogs.seattletimes.com/opinionnw/feed/.

See you at the new place.

Deer antler spray. What's so weird about that?

Thu, 31 Jan 2013 13:16:05 PST

Corrected version

I was looking forward to a week in which we would read heartwarming stories about the Harbaugh brothers coaching their way to the Super Bowl. Instead, we're pointing and laughing at Ray Lewis about deer-antler spray.

The Ravens linebacker is denying allegations that he uses deer-antler spray, which was reported by Sports Illustrated. Lewis, who has led Baltimore's football team to Sunday's national championship game, supposedly used the spray to recover from a torn right triceps. The spray contains IGF-1, an insulin-like growth factor that is banned by the NFL, according to SI. Lewis says he is "agitated," not angry about SI's report, according to this AP story.

Deer antler? I'm familiar with this banned substance. My mom kept a packet of deer antler powder in our fridge when I was growing up, along with ginseng, dried red dates, goji berries and a pantry of Chinese herbs. When I asked her what it was for, she said it made you healthier.

My mom, who grew up in Hong Kong, routinely brewed medicinal tonics that boosted immunity, treated colds and protected our bodies from cancer. I don't know whether they worked, but my parents, brother and I are still here. She also is a registered nurse, trained in England and Hong Kong and certified in the U.S. We used antibiotics and vaccines, but she believed in using both allopathic and traditional Chinese medicine to keep us healthy.

I won't be tittering over the phrase "deer antler spray." Because in my family — and a culture shared by 1.3 billion people — it is no weirder than taking a vitamin.

An earlier version of this blog post, published on Jan. 31, 2013 at 8:03 a.m., was corrected at 10:59 a.m. The earlier version incorrectly stated that Ray Lewis was a quarterback. He is a linebacker.

Is VW's Jamaica-themed Super Bowl ad racist or funny?

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 18:31:05 PST

Questioning whether a controversial Super Bowl ad by Volkswagen is racist ought to take each of us back to the question of what is beauty. Watch the ad and decide for yourself.

The ad features a white, average-looking guy walking around a corporate office dispensing "don't worry, be happy," style advice in a thick Jamaican accent. The juxtaposition of white guys, and one Asian, riding the VW depicting Island-style carefree living is hilarious.

But the VW-Jamaica ad is no ordinary car ad. Commercials run during the Super Bowl are the equivalent of Oscar night in Hollywood. They can run in the hundreds of thousands of dollars for just a few minutes of air time. Millions of people watch them and their reaction can sell a product or tank it. So of course VW was hoping to create a buzz. But the German auto company does not want to be viewed as racist. It can be a fine line.

They need not worry. The VW ad is edgy and funny, but it is not racist. It celebrates the optimistic, can-do spirit of Jamaicans and does it with a patois accent. An advertising executive told NBC's Today show around 100 Jamaicans were interviewed before the ad was released.

UPDATE: The Jamaican government has officially endorsed the ad. Tourism Minister Wykeham McNeill explains why. Not everyone agrees, New York Times columnist Charles Blow compares the ad to blackface, a discredited form of theatre that relied on racial stereotypes.

Hoping Microsoft gets Office 365 right this time

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 10:16:03 PST

Turns out software companies want to be more like newspapers. Microsoft launched the new version of Office 365, at the subscription price of $99.99 per year.

Office 2013, the traditional version of the software, costs $140 in comparison and can be used as long as your computer lives. Google Docs is the competitor to both with its the lightweight online word processing, spreadsheet and presentation software.

Here is the news side's report on Microsoft's Office launch by Janet I. Tu.

Microsoft has long pushed the model of selling software as a subscription instead of a one-time purchase, and has been successful at convincing its big-spending business customers. But it has lagged behind its competitor Google in packaging software as a subscription to individual buyers.

Google, the Mountain View, Calif., search company, has been selling Apps for $50 annually per person to businesses and individuals who want a secure, private and ad-free version of Google Docs, email and collaboration software.

The first version of Office 365 launched in June 2011, and cost $6 per month. I subscribed for six months, but only because I kept forgetting to cancel my subscription. The software was a hot mess. Figuring out how to collaborate on documents was an existential exercise in frustration.

I'm hopeful that Microsoft has cleaned up Office 365 in this launch. They need to get it right. The Microsoft Business Division, which makes Office, accounted for $24 billion in sales in fiscal 2012 and $15.7 billion in operating profit. The business division was responsible for 32 percent of the company's total sales that fiscal year.

I love the old school version of Office, and it's the main reason I've never given my heart fully to my iPad. I'm a grown woman. I can't take notes on a cartoon version of a legal pad in Comic Sans font, or whatever that font is called. Office is what won me over to buying the Surface. The Surface is woefully lacking in apps, so I'm still a heavy iPad user, but I love my Word.

Cartoon: Immigration

Wed, 30 Jan 2013 08:16:05 PST

Job open: Port of Seattle commissioner

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 18:46:05 PST

Here is an opportunity for someone with maritime, aviation, trade, real estate or labor or political background and who lives in King County. A seat is open on the five-member Port of Seattle Commission to replace Gael Tarleton, who resigned after being elected as a Democrat to the state House of Representatives.

The Port of Seattle owns Seattle’s waterfront cargo terminals, Fisherman’s Terminal, Shilshole Marina and Seattle-Tacoma International Airport. It is a large publicly owned enterprise with the social goal of fostering trade and creating employment. Port commissioner is a job something like being a corporate director and something like being on a city council. It is part-time and the pay is not enough to live on, but it is interesting work to the right sort of mind, it benefits the community, and occasionally, as in Gael Tarleton's case, it can be a stepping stone to higher office.

The usual way to get this job is to run for election county-wide, without political party identification, which requires some name recognition and raising money. Here is an easy shot. For now, the seat is being filled by appointment from the other four commissioners: Bill Bryant, John Creighton, Rob Holland and Tom Albro. The appointee becomes the incumbent and should have an advantage in money-raising and public visibility in November.

Applicants should get their applications in by noon, Friday, Feb. 1. Commissioner Albro said the commission will choose 20 semifinalists by Feb. 5, reduce it to six or fewer by Feb. 14, have them appear at public forums on Feb. 26 and 27, and make the appointment March 5.

Interactive: The good in the Senate's immigration reform proposal

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 10:01:05 PST

The Senate's immigration reform proposal shows a lot of promise about it. It's bipartisan and it's comprehensive. The plan provides a path to citizenship for people who are already in the U.S., a tempting incentive for graduate-degree holders to stay here with a green card offer and strong border and workplace controls.

President Obama is expected to announce his immigration plan on Tuesday. A Washington Post story says his plan will be more liberal than the Senate's.

Editorial writer Lynne K. Varner called it a game changer in an Ed Cetera blog post Monday.

I'm pleasantly surprised that Congress did something resembling the work of Congress. Still, it seems like a long road to secure House support.

Check out this AP interactive that compares Obama's goals with the Senate plan.

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The Washington Legislature considers the emergency clause

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 09:16:04 PST

A committee of the Washington Legislature has heard a bill that addresses a standing scandal in Olympia: abuse of the emergency clause.

An emergency clause is a statement that a piece of legislation is “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety [or] support of the state government and its existing public institutions.” You wouldn’t think building a baseball stadium, for example, was necessary “to preserve the public peace, health or safety,” but in the mid-1990s the Legislature said the Safeco Field was. This was challenged in a lawsuit and went to the Washington Supreme Court. In Clean v. State (1996) Chief Justice Gerry Alexander ruled that there was “a clear and present danger” (dumbing down a famous phrase) that the Mariners would leave town unless the stadium were built. Alexander said money and “recreational opportunities” would be lost if the Mariners left Seattle, and that “quick action was needed.” If the Legislature said a baseball stadium was necessary “for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety,” well, then it was.

Under Article II, Section I-b of the Washington Constitution, an emergency clause is the only exception to the right of referendum, which allows voters to veto a law by collecting signatures and putting it on the ballot. That was the point of the putting an emergency clause in the stadium law: not to allow a public vote on the stadium. There already had been a public vote among the people of King County—they voted no, narrowly—and the promoters didn’t want a statewide vote on it.

Since Clean v. State, the Legislature has been free to put an emergency clause on just about anything without worry that a court will strike it down. Since 1997, 15 percent of the enacted bills have had emergency clauses. According to Jason Mercier of the Washington Policy Center, 954 bills that passed into law were officially deemed “necessary for the immediate preservation of the public peace, health or safety [or] support of the state government and its existing public institutions.”

That's too many emergencies. Far too many.

The resolution heard in committee today, Senate Joint Resolution 8206, would allow an emergency clause only as an amendment to a bill, so that it would have to be voted on separately from the bill itself, and only with the support of 60 percent of both houses. Sen. Barbara Bailey, R-Oak Harbor, said she sponsored the constitutional amendment for years in the House of Representatives but never could get a hearing. With the Senate under control of the conservative-moderate coalition, she got her hearing in the Senate Committee on Governmental Operations, chaired by Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn.

The amendment would be unnecessary if the Washington Supreme Court had done its job. But the Court didn’t, and the amendment is. Unfortunately, it probably won't get anywhere. Legislators don't like to limit their own authority.

Cartoon: The Clintons

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 08:16:04 PST

How did the Seattle buyback turn into a flea market for guns?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:46:04 PST

The Seattle Police's gun buyback event yesterday turned into an ad hoc, unregulated flea market for weapons, with a Stinger missile launcher as the headliner.

The event, paid for by private donations, drew such a crowd that the buyback line stretched for hours. That made the private gun buyers, hanging out at the edges, a more attractive option for some, including the guy who sold the non-functioning missile launcher to a private collector.

That's not explicitly illegal. Washington state law does not require background checks for private sales, a provision commonly known as the "gun-show loophole." No background checks mean anyone - felons, the severely mentally ill - could saunter up, cash in hand, and buy a gun they'd be prohibited from buying from a federally licensed dealer.

It was clearly a failure of design for the event. Holding it in a parking lot, under the I-5 overpass, allowed the SPD to lose control.

It also spotlights the absurdity of exemptions for private sales. Dave Workman, senior editor The Gun Mag, said most buyers appeared to have concealed-weapons permits, which require a background check.

I hope so, but laws are written with the worst scenario in mind. It also brings to mind a case brought by U.S. Attorney Jenny Durkan in which an unlicensed dealer sold the rifle used to kill Seattle Police Officer Tim Brenton. The seller, David Devenny, literally exploited the gun-show loophole, selling the rifle at a Puyallup gun show.

Background checks are required for a damn good reason. Extending them to private sales is logistically and politically tricky. The state Legislature could consider requiring private sales go through licensed firearms dealer, adding some to the cost, but assuring background checks are done.

Another buyback is already being planned. As I noted a few weeks ago, these aren't very effective at reducing gun violence.

But at least let's not let it turn into another flea market.

Who will be Afghanistan’s Stanley Karnow?

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 13:16:05 PST

Certainly a war has to end before its definitive history can be written, but the death of journalist and historian Stanley Karnow stirs the question.

Karnow, author of the 1983 epic “Vietnam:: A History,” died Sunday, Jan. 27, in Potomac, Maryland. Monday was the 40th anniversary of the cease-fire negotiated in Paris. President Richard Nixon noted the agreement “brings peace with honor in Vietnam and Southeast Asia.”

That conflict roiled American politics for decades. The United States cut its first check to help the French in 1950, and the first American combat deaths came in 1959. More than 58,000 would follow.

Today in the Times a compelling look at the coffee business in India, by business reporter Melissa Allison, has a chart that notes America imports 25 percent of its coffee beans from Vietnam, the second-highest provider. The country also provides racks full of clothes for the U.S. market. Tourism is popular, including visits by vets who want to honor fallen comrades.

Understanding the big picture of traumatizing events can help nations and troubled souls adjust. Karnow did that with his writing and reporting. Afghanistan, another mystifying conflict, will find its muse.

Our own Sen. Patty Murray could break the Senate budget logjam

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 11:31:05 PST

With the retirement of Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, Washington state's own Sen. Patty Murray is in the Senate budget hotseat -- especially hot because of the Senate's failure to produce a budget for the last three years.

Writing for Slate, Matthew Yglesias expresses high hopes for Murray's tenure as budget chair, noting she is "substantially more liberal and also more politically adept than her predecessor."

In her statement as she took over the budget committee, Murray said:

As Chairman of the Budget Committee, I am going to be very focused on making sure that our government is supporting job creation and encouraging broad-based economic growth. Trickle-down economics has proven to be a failed theory and a wrong-headed ideology, and I feel very strongly that real prosperity and growth comes from the middle out, not the top down.

So the Budget Committee will be examining our nation’s spending priorities closely and working to make sure we are making the long-term investments in our people and our communities that will allow us to compete and win in the 21st century economy. And as someone whose own family benefited from a government that was there for us when we needed it most, I am also going to fight to make sure the most vulnerable families have the support they need to put food on their table and keep their heads above the water while they work to get back on their feet.

Interestingly, Murray, who was elected in 1992, reminisces about the work done to reduce the deficit with the new President Bill Clinton, including the Deficit Reduction Act of 1983.

Pressure for writing a budget and passing one is ratcheting up with the House approval of HR 325, a bill to allow raising of the debt ceiling. The measure also contained a provision that members of Congress will receive no pay unless they pass a budget. The "No Budget? No Pay" idea is advanced by No Labels, a bipartisan group devoted to getting federal leaders to move past political divisions in service to the country.

Members of Washington state's House delegation voting yes on that bill included all three of its new members -- U.S. Reps. Denny Heck, Suzan DelBene, Derek Kilmer, all Democrats. Also voting yes were Republicans Doc Hastings, Cathy McMorris Rodgers and Dave Reichert.

Voting no were Democrats Rick Larsen, Jim McDermott, Adam Smith and Republican Jamie Herrera Beutler.

Photo is by Getty Images: U.S. Sen. Patty Murray speaks during at Democratic National Convention in Charlotte, N.C., in September.

Senate and President Obama move on comprehensive immigration reform

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 14:31:05 PST

The comprehensive immigration reform plan proposed by a bipartisan group in the U.S. Senate is a game changer. Just over a week after President Barack Obama used his second inaugural address to gird the country for a partisan battle over immigration reform, it looks like a battle has been averted.

The four Democrats and four Republicans are expected to unveil the plan today. The Washington Post has the rough contours of the plan.

How did eight lawmakers on opposite sides of a controversial issue agree on broad outlines. Looks like they did it by prioritizing immigration reform tenets critical to both parties. Democrats have long wanted a path to citizenship for the estimated 11 million undocmented people nationwide, but the GOP argue the first priority is to secure the nation's borders to stop the influx of people entering the US illegally. This plan addresses both.

Fines and back taxes must be paid by those seeking legal status. The balance helps Democrats made good on their promise of citizenship for undocumented immigrants and allows Republicans to refute any charge that they're being soft on people who have broken the law.

Of course all of this has to be voted on by not just the Senate, but a contentious House that will not be easily corralled under either party tent. But today's news signals momentum.

For President Obama, the momentum is overdue. Hispanic voters have been unhappy over the president's failure to push through immigration reform. Yet they gave him another chance. Latinos voted for the president over Republican Mitt Romney by 71% to 27%, according to an analysis of exit polls by the Pew Hispanic Center, a Project of the Pew Research Center. Hispanic voter support for Obama is the highest seen by a Democratic candidate since 1996, when President Bill Clinton won 72% of the Hispanic vote.

Latinos are not the only voting bloc with a lot at stake in the immigration debate. As this column points out, Asians are part of a comprehensive view of immigration. The Dream Act, which would give young immigrants a path to citizenship, is one piece of the reform puzzle gaining support. President Obama enacted a smaller version of it last year. The widow of Apple co-founder, Steve Jobs, is the latest to call for swift passage of the Dream Act.
Photo: Mark Wilson/Getty Images

Video: Tina Fey, SAG awards and sisterhood

Mon, 28 Jan 2013 08:04:38 PST

Have you ever noticed best actress award winners are 400 percent more likely to thank their fellow nominees than best actor winners?

Tina Fey thanked her friend Amy Poehler upon winning best actress in a comedy award at the Screen Actors Guild on Sunday night. The two are frequently rivals in the category.

Also, Fey had a strong slapback for Lena Dunham, the "Girls" creator and actress who won the comedic acting award at the Golden Globes. Dunham thanked her fellow nominees, and said some of her competitors' performances helped her get through middle school. It was an unwittingly self-obsessed comment worthy of an episode of "Girls."

So far, I'm loving the women of the Hollywood awards season. They're smart, funny and so much more than a hanger for a designer gown. Here are some video clips.

Here is SAG video featuring Fey's acceptance speech, and her comeback for Dunham.

Here is Dunham's speech at the Golden Globes. Scroll to 3:08 for the "middle school" comment and the tail end of Fey's reaction.

And here is the opening monologue by Fey and Poehler when they co-emceed the Golden Globes with a witty reference to their rivalry, at the 40 second mark.

Powerful documentaries urge action on health care crisis, military sex abuse

Tue, 29 Jan 2013 12:31:08 PST

I just returned from a day trip to my hometown for the Olympia Film Society's 9th annual Documentary Film Festival at the historic Capitol Theater.

Two films in the festival's line-up have been on my radar for months: "The Waiting Room" and "The Invisible War." They screened back-to-back on Sunday afternoon.

Both films were filled with cringe-inducing moments, but I was greatly moved. Effective documentaries put a human face on timely issues that our society cannot ignore and has a responsibility to resolve.

"The Waiting Room" offers a stunningly intimate look into the complicated lives of the staff and patients of Highland Hospital, a public safety-net institution in Oakland, CA. "The Invisible War" sheds light on a horrendous epidemic of sex abuse in our nation's military.

I care about these topics because Washington's hospitals must deal with a similar influx of poor and largely uninsured individuals who forgo preventive care and end up in emergency rooms. Taxpayers must bear the cost of this lack of access to basic care. "The Waiting Room" takes us out of the ideological political war over "Obamacare" and into a real place where the mission is both complicated and simple: to get people healthy and back on their feet.

We also know that Washington is home to thousands of soldiers and veterans. I heard distinctive gasps throughout the audience as "The Invisible War" showed dismal statistics from government studies:

Since 2006, more than 95,000 service members have been sexually assaulted in the U.S. military

More than 86% of service members do not report their assault

Less than five percent of all sexual assaults are put forward for prosecution, and less than a third of those cases result in imprisonment

After years of inaction by government and military officials, the Oscar-nominated film reportedly spurred Defense Secretary Leon Panetta to take investigative powers away from commanding officers who've displayed a pattern of dismissing these atrocities. However, the military still lacks a system of accountability and due process. How many good men and women are kept out of the service for fear of being abused? This is a question we must ask ourselves, especially as the military lifts its ban against women serving in combat.

I hope these films continue to reach a wider audience.

"The Waiting Room" is screening in Seattle in March at Landmark Theaters.

"The Invisible War" is screening throughout western Washington in the coming months. The film will also broadcast on PBS' Independent Lens series on May 25, but viewers can watch it now on Netflix. Take action by visiting the Invisible No More site.

Hope springs: Mary Jo White nominated to head SEC

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 10:01:04 PST

Are you still swallowing bile about the mortgage crisis? Still mad that no Wall Street banker went to jail for gambling billions of dollars on the housing bubble and sending homeowners into foreclosure?

Hope springs after President Obama nominated Mary Jo White to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission Thursday. White is a former U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York who prosecuted terrorists in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing and mob boss John Gotti.

"You don't want to mess with Mary Jo," Obama said in an Associated Press report.

Let's hope Wall Street won't want to mess with her.

The Securities and Exchange Commission has been toothless for a long time. I wrote about the dot-com era, from its questionable accounting to outright deceit, for the news side in the late '90s. Reporter David Heath and I exposed accounting tricks in a series on InfoSpace, a Bellevue Internet company that turned its founder Naveen Jain into a billionaire and its small shareholders into paupers. What did we hear from the regulators? Crickets.

It's too soon to tell whether White will be the bulldog I've been waiting for. After leaving the U.S. Attorney's office, she worked for law firm Debevoise & Plimpton, where she defended a major financial institution over subprime loans, a major pharmaceutical company and numerous companies in SEC enforcement proceedings, according to the law firm's website. Let's hope she figured where the commission's soft spots are, and how to turn them into abs of steel.

The Senate should confirm White.

Cartoon: Hillary on the hill

Fri, 25 Jan 2013 08:16:04 PST