Tim Eyman: Astroturf “Grass Roots” Front for Rightwing Millionaires

About forty-eight years ago, Howard Jarvis fucked Grover Norquist and they named their hideous love child Tim Eyman.  If you don’t live in or near Washington State, you probably haven’t heard of this guy.  But every state probably has its own anti-tax folk hero — somebody to give a populist voice to the joy and pain of being a plutocrat:

“I’m mad as hell at the unwashed masses and I’m not going to take it any more!”

Since the late 1990s Tim Eyman has been determined to bankrupt the State of Washington with one anti-tax initiative after another.  Some of his initiatives have been passed by voters; some have been defeated.  And some of the ones that passed were later overturned by the courts.

Tim Eyman’s newest initiative — not on the ballot yet — would require all new tax increases to automatically expire after one year.  And it would require all state voter pamphlets to list each legislator’s voting record on all tax measures.  (I personally would be more interested in who contributed to each candidate’s re-election campaign; but that’s just me.)

Joel Connelly of the Seattle PI has Tim Eyman dialed.  Nailed.  He articulates exactly how and why Tim Eyman is such a phony bloodsucking piece of shit.  And he does it without any cursing or name-calling.  (I wish I could do that.)

From Joel Connelly’s column:

“He has turned into the favorite populist of local plutocrats and corporations wary of having loopholes closed or taxes raised.  The state’s major oil refiners put in $350,000 to fuel  Eyman’s 2011 super-majority measure onto the state ballot.  The Legislature in 2010 came close to passing a small per-barrel cleanup fee.  The Beer Institute topped that with $400,000.

“Bellevue developer Kemper Freeman Jr. put more than $1 million into an Eyman initiative that sought to block Sound Transit from crossing Lake Washington with a rail line extending to Bellevue and Redmond.  Financier Michael Dunmire has underwritten campaigns on issues ranging from taxes to traffic cameras.”

Ah, the voice of the people.

Andrew Villeneuve, of the Northwest Progressive Institute, also has some kind words for Tim Eyman:

“Eyman wants to clog up our ballots with nonbinding advisory votes that amount to nothing more than useless opinion research conducted at taxpayer expense.  If Eyman’s wealthy benefactors want to pay for one-sided poll questions intended to reinforce their talking points, that’s fine.  But the rest of us shouldn’t be forced to.”

As one of the commenters at the end of the linked article said:

“If Eyman had some 'nads, he would run for office and try to get things passed the way things were intended.”

A Fleeting Burst of Sanity from the Washington State Supreme Court

If you’re like me, you’ve probably had it up to HERE with 34% of the voters — or legislators — being able to shoot down every proposed tax increase and prevent every tax loophole from being closed.  It’s impossible to calculate how many school, library and mass transit projects have been derailed, and how many police officers and firefighters have been laid off, just because not quite 67% of the voters were willing to increase their own taxes to fund these projects.

And on that note, three cheers for the Washington State Supreme Court.

The Court has ruled that requiring a two thirds vote of the legislature in order to raise taxes — or even close a tax loophole — violates the Washington State Constitution.  I don’t know whether this ruling effects local tax initiatives, where one third of the voters can thwart the will of the other two thirds.  But it’s a start.

According to Article II, section 22 of the State Constitution:  “…no bill shall become a law unless …a majority of the members elected to each house” vote in its favor.

The anti-tax brigade’s only recourse now is to try to amend the Washington State Constitution.  In order to do this, they’ll need a two thirds vote in both houses of the state legislature AND the approval of two thirds of the state’s voters.  Good luck with that.  Poetic, no?  The shoe’s on the other foot now.

I’ve always thought this two-thirds/super-majority rule was just plain wrong, whether it regards taxes or any other issue.  It must be nice to be on the side that only needs to win 34% of the vote.

Tim Eyman — the twisted love child of Howard Jarvis and Grover Norquist — is Washington State’s favorite anti-tax hero.  Tim Eyman won’t sleep a wink until the last of these commie libraries has been slammed and shuttered.

If you live in or near Washington State, that funny noise you’re hearing is the sound of Tim Eyman pounding the bed and screaming into his pillow.

Commuter Gridlock is a GOOD thing

There are two people in Washington State who actually believe this. One is a spoiled multi-millionaire — Kemper Freeman, Jr., who pretty much owns Bellevue, WA — who always gets what he wants when he wants it. The Simon and Garfunkel song Richard Cory could have been written about Kemper Freeman, Jr. Unfortunately, Kemper Freeman, Jr. hasn’t yet followed through with the last line of that song. Oh, and there’s one other difference: Kemper Freeman, Jr. didn’t build or create any of his own wealth — he inherited it.

And the other half of the team is Tim Eyman, Washington’s famous “initiative-for-profit mercenary.”

Here’s another link.

Tim Eyman absolutely HATES taxes. That is, when said taxes go towards financing icky things like schools, libraries, fire departments, infrastructure or mass transit projects. Tim Eyman and Kemper Freeman, Jr. are bringing us the latest example of rightwing millionaire populism: “I’m mad as hell at the unwashed masses and I’m not gonna take it any more!”

Tim Eyman’s and Kemper Freeman’s love child is Initiative 1125. Basically, any and all attempts to ease commuter gridlock will be prohibited if I-1125 is passed by voters. Variable tolling — higher tolls during peak commute hours — Gone. And no more using toll revenues from one freeway or bridge to pay for another highway/mass transit project.

And most importantly — to Kemper Freeman, Jr. — I-1125 will prohibit using highway lanes for “non-highway” purposes. For the Seattle area, this will sabotage a light rail project that’s been in Stop-Start On-Off mode for decades — mostly because of Kemper Freeman, Jr. using one stalling tactic after another. Light rail is all well and good, mind you, but the transit agency will have to build a new bridge to put it on. And by the strangest coincidence, the bridge that’s the most clearly affected by I-1125 is the bridge into Bellevue, where Kemper Freeman owns the gargantuan Bellevue Square.. He wants you to DRIVE over the bridge; that sissy light rail thingy might not stop at HIS mall. Sorry your trip into Bellevue was ninety minutes of bumper-to-bumper traffic instead of a ten-minute train ride. Peon.

Red Light Cameras Save Lives

This belongs in the “DUUUHHH!!!” file, next to “birds fly” and “bears shit in the woods.” The obvious has been confirmed in a study by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety.

In fourteen cities with red light cameras, traffic fatalities were reduced by 24%. This includes a reduction in ALL categories of fatal crashes at intersections with a traffic signal; not just crashes caused by red light running. The Institute president said:

“We think that they are just paying more attention to intersections as they come up on them because they are more certain that if they violate the red light that they will get a ticket.”

However, some people think saving lives is a much lower priority than protecting a motorist’s God-given Constitutional right to crash into people without paying any consequences. Take the National Motorists Association (please!). The ACLU also has reservations about red light cameras. Oh well, they can’t get it right on every issue.

One argument is that these cameras are a privacy violation. I disagree. I think you give up a certain expectation of privacy when you get behind the wheel or get on a plane. They’re also condemned as being more of a “revenue generator” than a safety measure. That’s probably true. So if you don’t want to contribute extra revenue to your local government, stop at red lights.

Washington State’s favorite cut-services-to-the-marrow teabagger — Tim Eyman — has set his crosshairs on red light cameras. He probably figures he’s already closed enough schools and libraries and derailed enough mass transit projects, and red light cameras could prolong his fifteen minutes of fame just a little longer.

The Voters Have Spoken! Obama is Toast! FINISHED!!!

Sheesh, will the “liberal” media dial it down already. Two Republican governors get elected, and you’d think 300 million American citizens were charging toward the White House carrying torches and pitchforks.

Yes it sucks that two large states now have Republican governors. It’s not the end of the world.

I like the Upstate New York congressional race better. The 23rd District hasn’t sent a Democrat to Congress in over a hundred years. This should have been a slam dunk for the Republican candidate, Dierdre Scozzafava.

She was endorsed by the NRA and Newt Gingrich, among others. But she didn’t spew out enough fire and brimstone over abortion and gay rights, so the knuckledraggers kicked her out of their Big Tent. The single-digit-IQ brigade had their own knight in shining armor — Conservative Party Candidate Doug Hoffman. Calling all teabaggers, tenthers, afterbirthers, snakehandlers — here’s our chance to drive out those pansy moderates and Take Our Party Back!

Or as this article described it, Doug Hoffman got his teabags dunked. Democrat Bill Owens, a retired Air Force Captain, will now represent the 23rd District in Congress.

If you aren’t a resident of Washington State, the name Tim Eyman probably doesn’t mean anything. If you live in Washington, Tim Eyman is either a swashbuckling hero, saving Washington’s harried taxpayers from those tax-and-spend bureaucrats; or he’s a M&%$#&F#$%^&#in’ $#!%&%&$#!!#$%$#%#$!!!! There’s no in-between.

Eyman will never sleep as long as there’s still a library, public school, city park, fire department or any other socialist government service that hasn’t been shut down. His latest save-the-taxpayers gimmick got defeated yesterday. It was leading two to one in the polls just a few weeks ago. Thank God the voters came to their senses.

From the few pictures of him that I’ve seen, he looks like that nerdy comedian from several Seinfeld episodes; the one who kept saying “The best, Jerry. The Best!” and “I’ve been working out. I’m huge!”

Anyway, there was an interesting tidbit about him in last Sunday’s Seattle paper. It seems Tim Eyman himself is $250,000 in debt. That’s the amount he spent hiring all of those paid signature-gatherers so he could get his “grassroots revolt” onto the ballot. And now he doesn't have the money. I guess preaching about thrift and personal responsibility is more fun than actually practicing it.

Now before you go, here’s a short quiz (only five questions) you can have some fun with. I won’t give away any answers but here’s a little hint: no matter how sick and twisted you think the Far Right is — they’re even worse.