Artwork
My Blogs
Writing / Books
Jim W. Coleman
Lightness
Links
Volkswagens
|
Main
The McCain/Palin ticket won a victory in Washington State today! Their visit took many by surprise ...
Continue reading "10/31/2008 - MCCAIN/PALIN: HUGE VICTORY IN WASHINGTON STATE!"
»
Some Halloween fun in Port Orchard, Washington!
Meet the crew of sign wavers who stand out on the corner of Bethel and Tremont in Port Orchard until nightfall, seven days a week. They are (from left to right): Sue, John, Adam, and Jim. We have plenty of signs and we invite you to stand with us! Oftentimes, we duck on over to Puerto Vallarta for a beer when we're done, and we always have a great time. In fact, this has become the highlight of my day, and I hope to see you join us for an hour or two some night after work.
Continue reading "10/28/2008 - DINO ROSSI, MCCAIN/PALIN, JAN ANGEL ... ON A STICK!"
»
I invite you to come wave political signs with us on Tremont and Bethel in Port Orchard to support our Republican candidates. There's usually a group there from 3 to 6 p.m. on weekdays, and also on Saturdays in the morning and early afternoon. With the election only two weeks away, I'm trying to donate as much of my time as possible to stand out in the cold and get passersby excited. It's a lot of fun and great entertainment as well. You can't take shouted insults personally; instead, look at the funny side of it and it starts to look ... pretty pathetic. If one out of every ten who drove by shaking their head "no" would actually DO something ... like stand out on a corner, it might be a different race for the other side. Jan Angel was out there with us tonight, after spending nine hours "pushing a pencil on a budget." If nothing else, you get some good company and you get to witness a beautiful sunset. My rule: when the headlights come on, I'm outta there. :)
I carry a number of political signs in my truck and pull over whenever I see a group of politically-motivated people waving signs on the side of the road. Democrat or Republican, it doesn't matter - I can stand with them or on the opposite street corner.
Today, I spent hours waving signs in Port Orchard on the Safeway/Rite Aid intersection. And boy, let me tell you, that was quite the experience. Don't ever stand on a street corner with a political sign unless you have thick skin, and some real resolve.
Continue reading "10/18/2008 - WAVING SIGNS ON TREMONT"
»
Blog author Jim W. Coleman and his new-found friend, Shannon, pose for a picture with Gov. Dino Rossi (Washington State). Dino was very accomodating when I told him that it would make my daughter's day to have a picture of us together. I fully support Dino in his re-election bid. Click below for larger picture, and to see Stephen Barrett together with Dino Rossi!
Continue reading "05/30/08 - PHOTO OP WITH DINO ROSSI"
»
I wrote earlier on the blog that my favorite dignitary (politician) at the Convention is Rob McKenna. I have lived in Washington State since 1991 and I am convinced that so far as my interests are concerned, Rob McKenna has done more good for the State of Washington than anyone else. I was honored to have met him. The honor, he said, was all his - and he urged me to say hello to my daughters, and to encourage them as they mature into responsible adults. I hope they become as active politically as I've been all my life, and maybe they can do so with a bit more balance (wink :)
I couldn't believe a quote I read in the Kitsap Sun on August 4, 2007. Steve Gardner quoted Mary Ann Huntington as saying: "Once Bremerton prospers, we all prosper. If it turns out that I have been made the sacrificial lamb in this by some constituents, then so be it, but I know in my heart that I've done the right thing."
True, I'm all for a prosperous Bremerton, but it's not going to come on Mary Ann's shoulders and for crying out loud, the last time I heard anyone use the word 'sacrifice' in a personal context it was my ex-wife. I can tell you why Mary Ann Huntington is bad for Bremerton and in our household, we use a different consonant to start her last name ...
Continue reading "09/03/2007: MARY ANN HUNTINGTON - BAD FOR KITSAP"
»
All you seem to hear about today are the benefits of public transit - and how we (Seattle) needs to build more rail lines and greatly expand public transit. On our side of the water, Dick Hayes, head of Kitsap Transit, is very aggressive in increasing ridership and trying to wrangle funds from the state of Washington. I don't blame him for that - he has a family to feed. But I blame the entire system, which, to me at least, is looking more and more like a cottage industry providing jobs and line items on the budget, but no real savings to the end users.
Let's look at my commute without using public transportation and my new commute that does use public transportation. As you'll see, I was much better off before jumping on the public transit bandwagon:
Continue reading "05/01/2007 - THE PUBLIC TRANSIT RIPOFF"
»
Or, more appropriately sub-titled: DON'T LET THE DOOR HIT YOU ON YOUR WAY OUT, SONICS!
Owner Clay Bennett tried on the "Las Vegas Sonics" moniker for size and made sure that every local Seattle television station would air it over and over and over again. It's a thinly veiled threat, with a distinct used-car-salesman tactic. "Well, you'd better buy it now. I can't promise that it will still be on the lot this afternoon." Bennett asserts that the team could very well end up in Las Vegas but add that (of course) keeping the team local is still the preferred option. My six-year-old daughter uses the same tactics and any reasonably adult can see through the idiocy.
Continue reading "04/27/2007 - VIVA LAS VEGAS, SONICS!"
»
That sure is a nice Town Hall building that we taxpayers built in our lovely downtown Port Orchard corridor. It's where you can go take care of a lot of business and interact with our local government. When it's open, that is. I find it odd that with this huge Commute Trip Reduction, carpooling and public transit push that when I visited town hall at 4:35 to buy a parking pass so that I could commute by ferry ... it was CLOSED!
Continue reading "04/19/2007 - PORT ORCHARD TOWN HALL CLOSED FOR BUSINESS"
»
Kitsap County is a great place to live, but it's turning into a big whore for Seattle and for growth. There's a saying about not being able to see the forest through the trees and that's a very fitting statement about some of the leaders we have at the state and county level.
First, I'm tired of hearing everyone rail on me because I should embrace growth. I am unapologetic in my statement that I do not embrace it. If I wanted big cities, huge entertainment venues, traffic jams and crime, I would move to Seattle or Olympia. I moved to Port Orchard for a reason, and I'm seriously considering leaving it for those same reasons. You people who like to pave over the whole world in the name of growth and progress are the same ones of you who pack up your RVs and drive hundreds of miles to sit in a crowded campground and feel good about yourself for "getting away from it all." There is nothing wrong with having rural living areas, nothing wrong with those who choose to live in them, and nothing at all wrong with taking a long breather on the way to ruining this planet for all those who come after us. I think many of you won't be happy until the whole county is a solid cement slab and you choke on the same toxic air that has killed the entire ecosystem but by golly, you'll have your ferries and your stupid Nascar race and your arteries will be as clogged and ineffective as your highways.
(Keywords: Gorst, traffic jam, bottleneck, Jan Angel, County commissioners, Nascar, Kitsap Sun).
Read on ...
Continue reading "02/15/2007 - NO ON KITSAP NASCAR, YES ON FIXING GORST BOTTLENECK"
»
Don't get me wrong - when the local politicians talk about "growth" - they are talking about revenue. That's all. Money. They think your money is THEIR money.
Oh, yes. They hide it with nice little platitudes about better education for our kids, more jobs, higher standard of living, etc. But if you listen to the snake oiled seductive tones long enough, you'll thtart to hear a lithp - and iths all about revenue. Dollarth. Yourth.
They were saying the same crap ten years ago. And twenty years ago. We need growth. We neeeeeeed this money so we can do this for you. In actuality, they need it so they can do this TO you. Maybe growth isn't the big aphrodesiac it's cracked up to be. Why not? Because it's needy. It requires more. It creates displacement, resulting in a vacuum, sucking dry the teat.
Try to confront a politician about why things are so bad today, even after compounding one tax upon another to fix schools, roads - you name it: "Well," they'll spin, "bad decisions were made in the past. There was a lack of foresight."
Mark my words, all they're after is your money. In ten or twenty years, new politicians will be saying the exact same thing about them. And these miracle fixes and cures (Nascar, Sonics, new arenas, fat-assed Nickels tunnels, etc.) won't have done what they are promising you today. Why not? Because it's all a black hole into which we can pour innumerable dollars. We can build their legacies. Politicians have broad collars, from which they like to dangle your dollars. Remember that big fat gas tax that was supposed to fix everything? Get ready, your fuel tax goes up in July. And again next July. And guess what - we still have the problems but they are even larger, more complex problems now - problems which can only be fixed with MORE TAXES.
It's something to think about while you're driving over potholes, waiting in traffic jams and smelling the sewage spills in Puget Sound. What are they doing with all that money?
But, hey - at least our politicians see the infamous BIG PICTURE. They know what's best for us - and that appears to be sports stadiums.
When evaluating an incumbent politician at election time I can only say this. Don't look at what he or she has done. Look at what he or she hasn't done. Or, putting it another way: Don't look at what they've done for us. Look at what they've done TO us.
From today's newspaper, an AP story from Bloomington, Miss.:
State Sen. David Tomassoni, a Democrat who opposes a statewide smoking ban, said he worries about the lost tax dollars.
I first met both of these individuals at a South Kitsap Kiwanis breakfast meeting. Each candidate was given time to answer questions from the audience and to make general opening and closing statements. When I first saw Ron Boehme, I thought, "Man, he's getting my vote." He was sharply dressed, professional in appearance and besides - I vote Republican anyway. When Larry Seaquist got up, I knew I wouldn't vote for him. He looked to be 138 years old and lacked Boehme's slick, professional delivery. But over the course of the next half hour, I knew that I would never vote for Boehme and that Seaquist had my support. And now that the election is over, I was delighted to see Seaquist soar to victory.
Continue reading "RON BOEHME (R) VS. LARRY SEAQUIST (D)"
»
Here is the text of a letter I sent to Tim Sheldon. I think I'll send it to other legislators as well.
For those who don't know, Kitsap County is hoping to build a NASCAR track a mile or two from my house - with PUBLIC and private funds. I am totally against the entire proposal for a long list of reasons. Yes, there is a bit of NIMBY-ism there, but my concerns extend far beyond that:
Continue reading "10/21/2006 - READ MY LIPS: NO NASCAR"
»
|
|
