tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post113623527481091562..comments2023-10-21T01:46:44.432-07:00Comments on The Squeaky Wheel: 2005 was an amazing yearGetsGreasedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08092469387839128045noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post-1138665431446051782006-01-30T15:57:00.000-08:002006-01-30T15:57:00.000-08:00For now I'm done. Can't come up with any angle th...For now I'm done. Can't come up with any angle that hasn't been tried. Even the Feds appeared to believe our charges, but they too wouldn't go the next step. Too much money involved and too few - if any - folks with really integrity in government to take on the corruption. The citizen has no voice and no power to do anything by themselves, short of costly initiative drives that the courts easily dismiss and legislatures quickly ignore. I'll personally never trust a court again as long as I live. The law means nothing when certain high-dollar issues are in play.<BR/><BR/>Every person I know that has tried to fight the land use corruption has moved on. New faces step up, but they're going up against hardened, well-paid armies of lawyers and lobbiests whose only job it is to keep the gravy train going. They have all the access and we never did. <BR/><BR/>You can only beat your head against the wall for so long. I think those of us up here lasted longer than most, but in the end we were just as powerless to fight the dollars and professional parasites as anyone else.<BR/><BR/>What's sad is how few people know just how bad it is.GetsGreasedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08092469387839128045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post-1138660554643351432006-01-30T14:35:00.000-08:002006-01-30T14:35:00.000-08:00I mean, "what happens next" as in, are you going t...I mean, "what happens next" as in, are you going to do anything else to try to bring more accountablility to King County developement? Are there anymore large developements planned for the future in E. King?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post-1138643409528603742006-01-30T09:50:00.000-08:002006-01-30T09:50:00.000-08:00FYI- I continued to support Brian after he changed...FYI- I continued to support Brian after he changed parties. I also have no problem with 99% of the builders out there. It's the mega-builders that have corrupted our system, the laws and both parties that I have the problems with. When I'm sitting in the stop and go traffic that Weyerhaeuser created waiting for the new taxes imposed upon us all to fix it, that's the only answer I have to your "what happens next" question. I don't see anything on the horizon to reverse the direction both parties have bought into for Western Washington.GetsGreasedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08092469387839128045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post-1138427983668408372006-01-27T21:59:00.000-08:002006-01-27T21:59:00.000-08:00So you're a Derdowski Republican? (Back when The D...So you're a Derdowski Republican? (Back when The Derd was a GOPer that is) My family was for Derdowski despite the fact that we're Dems because of his slow growth beliefs.<BR/>I think it's bad manners for a lib like me to visit a righty blog and comment dump, but I was curious about the anti-builder angle of your blog, being that you are a conservative.<BR/><BR/>So, as far as land issues are concerned, what happenens next?Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post-1138223423615816692006-01-25T13:10:00.000-08:002006-01-25T13:10:00.000-08:00I think anyone has a right to attempt to influence...I think anyone has a right to attempt to influence government to achieve their goals. I would never suggest that the Building Industry does not have that right. What I object to, though, are governments and irresponsible elected officials that cave into the pressures and bias their actions for a corporate interest over the interests of people in the community. I have seen how those pressures, many of them institutionalized by the politicians into the law, have poisoned King County's land development system. Today we have a development agency (DDES) that is a defacto subsidiary of the builders. Not only funded directly by permit fees, but desperate to keep those permits flowing. DDES will find the way to approve whatever large builders wish and then shield them from the consequences with their rubber stamp. I've witnessed the "arbitrary and capricious" actions by DOT to manipulate traffic studies, forecasts, and volumes to forgive developers tens of millions of dollars in road impacts. I've seen how the county treats whistleblowers who've tried to expose the alleged fraudulent and illegal acts by their own agencies.<BR/><BR/>Am I an anti-BIAW Republican? I am a conservative. With that comes a belief that government handouts to the Builders are no less a robbery of the taxpayers as handouts to the lazy, illegal aliens, or those simply unwilling to provide for themselves. And when this government extorts money from me and my fellow taxpayers to subsidize the road construction and other infrastructure that they have worked to keep the growth industry from funding, then I think that makes me an "anti-corporate welfare" Republican.<BR/><BR/>To add insult to injury, when I see the pathetic quality of homes being built by some of these mega-developers to further maximize their subsidized profits, then I just get pissed off.GetsGreasedhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08092469387839128045noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-15114745.post-1138182326580505492006-01-25T01:45:00.000-08:002006-01-25T01:45:00.000-08:00So, are you an anti-BIAW Republican? Not a dig, j...So, are you an anti-BIAW Republican? Not a dig, just wondering.<BR/><BR/>I <I>have</I> seen everything...Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com