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I don’t generally read the Tacoma News Tribune. It’s a McClatchy “newspaper” – and I use that term loosely.

McClatchy rags all seem to tout the McClatchy line – they’re anti-labor, right-wing, rags with a very specific, narrow agenda. I guess you could say they’re the print equivalent of Fox News.

When McClatchy bought the TNT from the Baker family years ago, one of the first things they did was engineer the breaking of the newspaper’s union – pretty much just as they’ve done at most all the other McClatchy rags. That kinda set the tone for everything else.

I stopped reading the TNT – cancelled my subscription – when they came out with a story about longshore workers in Tacoma, about the longshore casual selection process. The story was quite biased and the editorial that followed was a sniveling, whiny piece of drivel – motivated by what was obviously the fact that the editor’s kid must not have gotten a casual card and the editor was pissed.

When you intimately know a subject – I am a longshoreman in Tacoma – then it’s easy to separate fact from fiction. The story about ILWU Local 23 was severely biased. And if the TNT promotes lies about that, then I have to figure the rest of their coverage is similarly biased.

So like I said, I quit subscribing.

I did pick up an occasional Sunday paper – mostly for the ads. And I continued to read the online version – for the local news.

Then a few months ago, the paper published yet another whiny, anti-labor editorial that was blatantly untrue and biased – and since then, I quit reading the online version.

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Editor’s note: We came within about an inch of this actually happening. Let’s not forget!

We’re lucky to have secured a pre-release excerpt from the new Time Magazine issue set to be on newsstands the week of December 21, 2009 – Time’s Person of the Year edition.

2009 Person of the Year

Selecting the Person of The Year is always a tough call, but given the recent political developments in the United States and the world generally, this year was somewhat easier and we were unanimous in picking George W, Bush as our 2009 Person of the Year.

It’s easily demonstratable that George W, Bush has made life much safer for God fearing Christians the world over, and on that basis alone, our choice for Person of the Year was easy.

In the turmoil following the terrorist bombing of the 2008 Democratic National Convention – which precipitated the loss of all the top Democratic Party leadership including nominee Senator Barack Obama – George W. Bush boldly took charge, suspending the presidential elections, declaring martial law.

By immediately rounding up all the godless heathen terrorists – Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus, homosexuals, anarchists, liberals and the like – the United States is now finally enjoying the peace and safety we deserve.

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Like a phoenix rising from the ashes, America was reborn today, when Barack Obama was sworn in as our 44th president.

After eight years of disgrace and shame, Obama’s election and inauguration rings in a new era for the United States. An era of hope, and of pride in our country.

Those qualities have been absent from our vocabularies for quite some time.
Since its inception in 1776, the ideals of America have shone forth like a beacon all across the world: freedom and equality; Liberty and justice for all; the land of the free and the home of the brave. Lofty ideals, those.

But these ideals were buried in a shameful, disgraceful, degrading time, where under George Bush, America became the world’s bully – invading a sovereign nation – Iraq – for no just reason or provocation; they were buried by George Bush manufacturing his phony “War On Terror” which was designed solely to expand and solidify his power base; they were buried when George Bush moved America closer and closer to becoming a police state, where we were tricked into giving up freedoms in the name of security; they were buried when George Bush tried and nearly succeeded in setting up an imperial presidency, where the president and his cronies were above the law of the land; they were buried when under George Bush, big business was turned loose to rape the environment and pillage the citizenry – all but destroying the US and world economies.

George Bush trashed it all.

But finally, the tide is turning.

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It really kills me how Bush has been touting his record in the last week or so, listing as one of his major accomplishments that since 9/11, there have been no further foreign terrorist attacks on US soil.

With his approval rating running at a meager 22% – the lowest rating in history for a sitting president, I guess Bush feels like he has to try and clear his name. But his arguments don’t stand up to scrutiny.

Let’s take a quick look backwards and examine the validity of Bush’s claims.
Okay, Bill Clinton served from 1993 till 2001. There was one actual foreign terrorist attack on the US during Clinton’s presidency – the February 26, 1993 bombing of the World Trade Center where six people were killed.

However, since the attack took place only a little over one month from the time Clinton took office, it’s kind of hard to lay the blame on his administration.

Okay, so who was the slacker president that let this 1993 bombing happen? Why it was daddy Bush, that’s who. George H.W. Bush served as president from 1989 to 1993.

Looking back from 1993, we find that, well – there really aren’t any other attacks by foreign terrorists on American soil.

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Well, we did it. Barack Obama got elected. Now the fun begins.

The stench of George Bush – America’s worst president ever – will linger for years and years. It’s hard to even begin to count the ways George Bush has screwed up the United States and the world.

Where do you begin? Our economy is in ruins, and the whole country is falling apart at the seams, with the world economy trailing behind us like a drunken sailor, bobbing and weaving, about to pass out. Then we’ve got wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, a trillion dollar debt, the loss of many of our civil liberties in the name of freedom – and that’s just the beginning.

After eight years of a Bush republican, Neo-Con feeding frenzy – where Bush’s buddies spent day and night gorging themselves on the spoils of our labor, things are kind of rough. Bush and his buddies have raped and pillaged their way through much of our children’s inheritance. All that’s left are the smoking ruins.

I really don’t envy Obama – he’s coming into a pretty hopeless situation.

But at least I am heartened by the fact that I believe Obama is better qualified to turn the situation around than anyone else I can think of. To the extent anyone can, Obama has the best chance.

And more importantly, we’re not continuing to dig ourselves any deeper.
If John McCain had been elected, it just would have been a third term for Bush – no difference at all. That would have been a fate worse than death.

By electing Obama, we’ve prevented that – prevented further damage from being done.

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Washington State Measures

Initiative 985 – This measure would open high-occupancy vehicle lanes to all traffic during specified hours, require traffic light synchronization, increase roadside assistance funding, and dedicate certain taxes, fines, tolls and other revenues to traffic-flow purposes

Yes

Initiative 1000 – This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician.
Yes

Initiative 1029 – This measure would require long-term care workers to be certified as home care aides based on an examination, with exceptions; increase training and criminal background check requirements; and establish disciplinary standards and procedures.
Yes

It seems like 99% of all the politicians from all the different parties are cut from the same mold. They all have slightly different messages and slants left or right, but basically it’s all the same. A politician is a politician is a politician.

Barack Obama defies these stereotypes.

An early opponent of the war in Iraq, Obama had the courage to speak out and voice his opposition, even though at the time – because of the hysteria Bush had drummed up, reminiscent of the Joe McCarthy era – it was considered un-patriotic to oppose the war.
That really was a courageous act. Obama has maintained that position – that the Iraq war is wrong and that we must get our troops out – consistently since the war started.

The war in Iraq is one of the biggest problems we now face.

Obama has promised to get our troops out – and for that reason alone, I would vote for him. McCain’s “we’ll keep the troops there for 100 years or as long as it takes” is just completely intolerable.

But there are other reasons I support Obama, as well.

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