Yes, folks, the Seattle Weekly has discovered this. The paper's cover story by Rick Anderson, "Armed & Litigious," is subtitled, "Ex-Con Alan Gottlieb is taking the fight against gun control to the Supreme Court--and fattening his wallet in the process."

For liberals I know in journalism, to make a living is a big, big sin in regards to certain people. Tim Eyman is one. Alan Gottlieb is another. Journalists who disagree with these guys think it's deeply wrong and unfair that they feed their families by what they do. By harping on this, these journalists insinuate in their stories that these guys are just in it for the money. The implication is that if Gottlieb could make more money as a tree pruner, or baking apple pies, he'd be doing that; and if Eyman could make more money selling watches, he'd still be doing that. And this is almost certainly not true. These guys are doing what they want to do.

President Obama's eloquence in public speaking helped elect him to the White House. His oratorical gifts are a respected, formidable political strength. So is the ability to connect with people on an intimate, human level. Vice President Biden did that Tuesday at a memorial service for seven Stryker Brigade soldiers.

Both the president and vice president honored men and women who lives were taken from them in service to their country. Obama spoke at Fort Hood and Biden was at Fort Lewis. The vice president's remarks can be found here. Biden has known deep sorrow in his personal life, and he spoke straight from the heart. He spoke on behalf of the nation, and as one who has shared great pain. This was personal, and powerful.

With polls long closed, and ballots still rolling in, another election has come and gone. The result?

Nationally, Republicans took over six of the seven major offices in normally blue Pennsylvania, Maine opted to reject a same-sex marriage law, and the Rocky Mountain town of Breckenridge approved a measure allowing citizens to smoke and sell up to one ounce of marijuana; toke on Breckenridge.

Locally, a referendum was passed to ensure the rights of same-sex partners, public opinion of Tim Eyman was made clear, a grass-roots neophyte will soon be leading the city of Seattle, and a former county councilman trounced the new pol on the block for King County executive; a victory for nerds everywhere.

But hardly any of these races were won by the youth vote.

In fact, young voters barely made a dent on this year’s election results. Important political positions were filled, and initiatives and bills were approved or rejected as voters age 18 to 29 sat on their haunches.

Take Virginia for example, where the GOP swept races across the state, the very same state that confidently swept President Obama into the White House only a year ago. Clearly, the Obama phenomenon was short-lived.

Only 17 percent of Virginia voters under 30 participated in the state election, a startling figure compared to the 59-percent turnout in 2008. Republican Bob McDonnell was one of the only candidates who actively sought — and won — the Virginian youth vote. His strategy helped secure his win as governor, and was a nod to analysts that not all young people lean left.

“We knew all along that there wasn’t enough being done to reach out and engage young voters,” said Chrissy Faessen of Rock the Vote, an organization empowering youth voters. “I don’t know if we could have anticipated how low the numbers would be though.”

History has shown petitioning for the youth vote is an incredibly effect method in winning votes, Faessen said, though it seems few politicians strive do so.

Because Washington participated in its first mail-in only election, exit polls were nonexistent, and it will take several more weeks to determine precisely how many voted. Secretary of State Sam Reed predicted 51-percent voter turnout, but we will have to wait and see how Washington’s youth acted.

“It’s sad to think of nearly half the electorate sitting this one out, particularly when so much is at stake,” Reed said in a recent press release. “Your voice is needed.”

Perhaps our elders believed in us too much, put too much trust in our young voting hands. But I think we can handle the pressure. We just chose not to.

To be fair, gubernatorial and midterm election years always produce lower turnouts than presidential elections across age brackets. There is obviously something special about helping choose the man or woman at the helm of the U.S. political hierarchy. But after the large turnout seen during Obama’s campaign (53 percent of eligible youth voted in 2008), the numbers are simply pathetic, and killed the notion that “hope” had awakened a sleeping generation of voters.

Obama’s election was certainly thrilling, and I felt honored to witness the major milestone in American history. But when was the last time Obama’s decisions or policies directly — and I mean truly — changed your life? Have any of the president’s actions over the last year impacted your daily routine?

Probably not.

Local elections can determine how much it costs to ride the bus everyday, the accessibility to family-planning programs, and whether the government recognizes your committed relationship.

The Rock the Vote campaign sent out e-mail and text-message reminders before the August primary and registers new voters on their Web site every day. They also sent out more than 15,000 nonpartisan e-mails ensuring as many young voters as possible were informed on the issues.

But the result was lackluster. Young voters missed the boat, with no one to blame but themselves. Right now there are an estimated 44 million eligible young voters, but typically only a little more than half are registered for every election.

To me the biggest disappointment from our recent election was the young-voter demographic — my generation. We didn’t step up, and just reinforced the assumption that we can easily be overlooked.

The only way we can enact change is by becoming knowledgeable on the issues that affect us most. Don’t think health care affects you? Just wait until you’re unemployed or underemployed and have to pay your medical bills out of pocket.

Ever heard of the suffrage movement where woman like Susan B. Anthony put their lives at risk to earn the right to vote? Voting is serious, and it seriously affects you.

John Mayer’s popular “Waiting on the World to Change” Top-40 hit says it best, “One day our generation is gonna rule the population, and we keep on waiting, waiting on the world to change.”

So what are we waiting for? The world is changing right now.

For more information on Rock the Vote, or to register today, visit: www.rockthevote.com

This report about stolen swine flu vaccine adds to the public health zaniness created by the vaccine shortage.

News reports about big employers such as Goldman Sachs in New York City ordering caches of the vaccine tug at the public's patience. If you still have your sense of humor about this whole thing, check out this send up by Saturday Night Live comics.

There are reports of people using any means necessary to get the vaccine, which continues to be reserved for healthcare workers and the medically fragile.

Most citizens are abiding by the law and this county website has become their daily go-to for information on pharmacies with a supply of the vaccine and open appointments.

This story offers a good explanation of how we got to the middle of flu season with a vaccine shortage.

The jump ball that is state Sen. Fred Jarrett has stopped bouncing. Jarrett will be the No. 2, the deputy, to incoming King County Executive Dow Constantine. Good swift move by Constantine. Jarrett adds cachet to the outfit.
All campaign long, candidate Susan Hutchison and Constantine talked about the vritues of Jarrett and his moderate-minded positions on county budget issues - and how much both would like to hire Jarrett should they be elected.
Turns out it wasn't idle campaign chit-chat. Constantine has picked Jarrett and Jarrett has agreed to do the job.
Jarrett of Mercer Island was in my mind one of the two best candidates for executive in the primary. But when his pal, state Rep. Ross Hunter of Medina, jumped into the race, Jarrett and Hunter had to split that part of the vote. They both lost.
So Jarrett has settled and he will be leaving his state Senate seat to help Constantine run the difficult and beleaguered government of King County.
This is a win-win for the county

One of the downsides of Washington's vote-by-mail system is that to delay the result is also to put it out of the national media spotlight. Consider Referendum 71. Basically it's gay marriage, and the voters of Washington favored it. This was the first time a state had voted for gay marriage ever--and after gay marriage had lost 31 other state elections. That is big national news but the national media didn't see it.

One of the reasons was that it wasn't labeled "marriage," though that's what it was. But the other reason is that the national media has its spotlight turned on state races on election day, and our results weren't ready by election day. We voted and Maine voted on essentially the same thing--but Maine was ready with a result, and we were not.

The state Department of Social and Health Services has agreed to pay more than $500,000 for failing to turn over public records requested by the public. It is an expensive but important lesson about the perils of flouting open records laws.

DSHS admits it withheld records requested by two women and a teenage girl suing the state claiming they were physically and sexually abused by their foster father. Agency officials say the requests were not intentionally ignored, blaming instead faulty records-request tracking systems and inadequately trained staff.

The agency that probably spends more on litigation and settlements to victims than any other governmental arm just learned another expensive lesson.

One of the more underplayed stories of Election 2009 concerns Tim Eyman's latest government-slamming initiative and the voting in several Washington counties where he used to be king.
Click on this handy Secretary of State map showing where Eyman's initiative 1033 passed and where it failed throughout the state.
Many counties in Eastern Washington have changed dramatically over the years in relationship to Eyman and his proposals.
As recently as 2005, many Eastern Washington counties were with Eyman, voting to repeal a gas tax increase that pays for new roads and bridges. Click on this list to see how many counties went along that year. In the beginning of the Eyman era, with Initiative 695, those counties were solidly in his camp. The initiative failed.
But times are different. Last year, Eyman's goofy transportation measure went down in 38 out of 39 counties. The loyalty is waning.
Our favorite professional initiative operative has already said he will be back next year with another initiative because.... well..... because...
He should do so knowing more people in more and more counties are tired of watching the same play with Eyman as the protagonist.

Civil disagreements, with Lynne Varner and Bruce Ramsey of the Seattle Times editorial board, is a weekly feature of the Ed Cetera blog. Here Lynne gets annoyed about the disparagement of Southerners, and Bruce doesn't.

Lynne Varner, left, and Bruce Ramsey

Lynne Varner: Bruce, enough already! One more joke about a Southern airplane mechanic who dips snuff, has a lazy hound dog and couldn't build a plane if his life depended on it and I'll scream.

Okay I'm back. My throat is a little sore, but I digress. Puget Sounders are an educated, tolerant lot and I know most don't really believe people from the South are stupid or inbred. So it is a little too convenient to invoke those stereotypes when we're angry.

I know what you're thinking Bruce. We can't make fun of minority groups, gays or people who are overweight. Jokes on the elderly come off as mean; people who make fun of kids are bullies. So who's left? No one. Just as it should be.

Bruce Ramsey: C'mon, Lynne. These people took the second Boeing 787 production line from us. Wasn't that mean? If they wanted to be nice they would have taken the Viaduct instead, or maybe the Pierce County Board of Public Health. They took our airplane line. So we tell a few jokes about their moonshine and their snoozing dogs. These are people who eat boiled peanuts. Let's not be too nice to them, at least not yet.

Voters rejected Seattle School Boardmember Mary Bass's bid for a third term.

Bass faced an uphill battle to convince voters that after eight quiet and generally lackluster years she could push and bring about substantive policy changes in another term.

With inadequate state funding of education and mounting federal pressure for academic results, every school in Seattle is under pressure But Bass's 5th District faces enormous challenges to improve struggling schools such as Madrona K-8 and broaden access to excellent programs at schools like Washington MIddle School.

The challenge for winner Kay Smith-Blum is to gain a rapid read of the city's most diverse community, understand and prioritize its educational needs and go to work building the kinds of relationships and political support needed to effect change in the schools she represents. The need to build trust and support among political colleagues was something Bass often overlooked. A board member with a good working relationship with colleagues and staffers can often effect change with a phone call. Others see their legislative initiatives voted down time and again.

it will be interesting to see how quickly Betty Patu makes the shift from a longtime school employee with limited perspective and experience to a policy maker. Her answers on issues as different as education funding and alternative schools shows a steep learning curve.

Boardmember Michael DeBell ran unopposed and for him, Election Day, was a cakewalk.

Tim Eyman's latest effort to mess with government, Initiative 1033, seems to have gone down in flames. He really went too far this time -- or maybe too close to home.

It's one thing when Eyman's initiatives take on the great big nebulous state government and the governor, whoever that may be, and their big-spending undisciplined ways. The perpetrators seem far away from voters.

But Eyman's initiative reached beyond state government and deep into local courthouses and city halls, close enough for many people in small towns to see very clearlythat Eyman's usual one-size-fits-all approach was not going to fit their communities, not at all.

Not even Gov. Chris Gregoire's thinking outloud about how to raise revenues gave Eyman's fire-and-brimstone pitch any fuel.

Eyman was hurt when county and city officials, and their organizations, came out swinging and who could talk directly to their constituents at the local coffee shop, the farmers co-op or on the campaign trail. Many conservatives who tend to support Eyman's initiatives bucked the tide too.

The Secretary of State's map of which counties went for this snake oil makes it clear that more conservative areas of the state weren't buying.

In a press release for Permanent Defense, which opposes I-1033 and many of Eyman's efforts, Andrew Villeneuve, Northwest Progressive Institute Executive Director, said:

"Tough times have already forced local governments there down to bare bones. Initiative 1033 would have gutted what was left. Fortunately, Washingtonians have said no to greed and yes to a sustainable future, sparing our communites from a devastating blow."

Good thing. I'm not holding my breath but I hope this is the last we hear of Tim Eyman for a while.

In my column, I offer a glimpse into how the public is coping with the mixed messages about the economy. There are strong arguments for a positive outlook as barious parts of the economy stop contracting and start growing again.

This story offers a broad but quick snapshot. This website compiles most, if not all, economic indicators and is worth a peruse. Allison Butcher, director of public affairs for the Master Builders Association makes a good point: until people feel secure about employment, that is until the unemployment rate dips way below its current high, no amount of rosy-tinged reports of leading economic indicators will make them feel confident.

This white paper on socio-economic beliefs and how they are shaped by recessions helped shape my thinking as I interviewed Don Gerend, a member of the Sammamish City Council and Rep. Reuven Carlyle, a Democratic member of the state Legislature. A generation separates the two men, yet their outlook on this economic downturn was largely the same.

I didn't have room in my column to mention this but Rep. Carlyle brought up something I want to hear echoed by other lawmakers, particularly Democrats: making Washington a more business friendly state. Yes, Washington has an entreprenurial spirt and an educated populace, but some of its rules and policies can drive small business owners crazy. For example, dealing with different counties and their different licensing rules and B&O tax reporting requirements. Carlyle wants to untangle the thicket of rules and reporting requirements. He should go for it.

A medium-sized dog has twice the carbon footprint as a Toyota Land Cruiser, according to a New Zealand study conducted by environmentalists. The comparison is in terms of land: how much it takes to feed the dog versus feeding the truck. I assume it is an alcohol-powered truck. I don’t know if the study considered the packaging the food came in. It did not concern the emissions of the truck, or, indeed, of the dog.

Campaigns can turn ugly. The King County executive is a brutal example of that -- on both sides.

There is no way that candidate Dow Constantine, a King County councilmember, is responsible for Boeing's decision to expand into South Carolina -- as his opponent Susan Hutchison inartfully suggested this week. I think I pulled a muscle comtemplating that stretch. Hey, this is politics. Mud flies.

But Constantine really stepped outside the lines of propriety, not for nastiness, but for violating the copyright of a revered institution, the nonprofit TVW, Washington's version of CSPAN -- and for refusing to cut it out. TVW has asked that it be taken down, and Constantine's lawyers have refused. Constantine's spokesman Sandeep Kaushik told seattlepi.com that the use is justified.

Founded in 1995, TVW's programming has included legislative hearings and debates, Supreme Court proceedings, law school symposia and public policy events, such as the Washington Policy Center's annual dinner.

Snippets of the 2008 dinner programming showing Hutchison lavishly praising a WPC report were used in an ad to suggest she aligns herself with extremists. That insinuation is ironic since WPC's staff members have been invited to testify before the Washington Legislature by Democrats and Republicans alike. I didn't go to WPC's most recent dinner, but a friend who attended said plenty of folks from both sides of the aisles were sitting at table breaking bread together.

By the way, another Constantine ad maligns WPC as global warming deniers, an allegation that doesn't ring true. See this Times guest column by the director of WPC's Environmental Policy Center, arguing for a carbon tax as part of a more coherent approach to climate change.

But here's what has TVW officials righteously exercised. Under its policy, TVW footage can be used only in its entirety, so people can see the context of what is said. That standard is to keep the trust with citizens, policymakers and elected officials that TVW stays out of the political fray.

So far, though some have had to be reminded, campaigns have abided by that policy with one notable exception. In 2006, the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee cleverly excerpted a speech by Republican Congressman Dave Reichert in ads supporting challenger Darcy Burner.

Then-TVW President Cindy Zehnder was fighting the violation but to no avail. By the way, Zehnder later became Gov. Chris Gregoire's chief of staff (Hello! This is not a partisan issue.)

TVW's current President Greg Lane said the behavior of Constantine's campaign is especially disturbing.

"It’s a local campaign, not a third-party organization from D.C., which is creating a crack in the wall we’ve built locally to successfully keep our footage out of the political fray," Lane says.

That is serious breach. And, as a former state lawmaker, Constantine should know better. He should pull the ad and apologize.

Dow Constantine, progressive candidate for King County executive, has a political ad that draws a connection between his conservative opponent, Susan Hutchison, and a group that "doesn't believe in global warming." The ad, here

doesn't name the group, but it's the Washington Policy Center, the Seattle-based free-market think tank. And the environmental director of that group, Todd Myers, says the characterization is not true. Indeed, it came from an article in the Seattle Weekly, and the Weekly has corrected it. Myers has asked the Constantine campaign to stop using the ad, and it won't. To support his position as a global warming believer, he cites pieces he's written pieces for the Times opinion pages, here, and here, advocating a carbon tax.

Civil disagreements, with Lynne Varner and Bruce Ramsey of the Seattle Times editorial board, is a weekly feature of the Ed Cetera blog. Here Bruce and Lynne get fumed up about a propposal to ban smoking in Seattle parks.

Lynne Varner, left, and Bruce Ramsey

Bruce Ramsey: Lynne, I can't believe you buy this idea. Somebody sitting outside on a park bench having a cigarette should be given a ticket? Why? The smoke doesn't hurt anybody. It's blown away in the wind.

Even with secondhand smoke indoors, as in a tavern, there was a real dispute whether it was actually dangerous, because of how diluted the smoke was. I recall when the smoking ban was being debated, the proponents didn't talk about the health of the customers but about the bartenders, who were around indoor secondhand smoke 40 hours a week.

But you want to ban outdoor secondhand smoke? Why? (And if it's OK to ban it in parks, why not on the sidewalk? The parking lot? Etc. Where does it end?)

I have asked some colleagues who support this, and their answer is that sometimes, outdoors, they get a whiff of smoke, and they don't like it, and they think it should be banned.

You can get a whiff of a lot of things outside, starting with diesel fumes from a truck. Smoke from a bonfire or a barbecue. The smell of a cow pie.

A whiff is not a brush with the Grim Reaper.

It abuses the language to call this a health measure. If it is passed and rigidly enforced in this city of 600,000 people, it won't add one minute to the life of one person, with the possible exception of the person smoking--and that is none of the government's business.

This is a control measure. It's an I'm-more-progressive-than-you measure. An intolerant measure. And guess who wants it? People who used to be called liberals. They should look up "liberal" in the dictionary.

Lynne Varner:Bruce, smoking is a public health problem costing taxpayers tens of millions a year in healthcare and related costs. Seattle is right to consider public policy measures to tackle this challenge. Bicyclists are required to wear helmets, motorists to have car insurance and drinkers to refrain from driving. These are all legal recreational outlets - as are cigarettes - that must comply with public safety rules. Requiring smokers to contain their smoking to areas outside of city parks would not be an overreach.

I heard Seattle was thinking of following Tacoma's lead so I called City Councilman Tom Rasmussen who chairs the Council's Parks and Seattle Center Committee. He believes a smoking ban in city parks can be done by administrative fiat if Parks Superintendent Tim Gallagher is willing to create such a rule.

Seattle would not be the first to do this. About 430 cities and towns nationwide ban smoking in public parks, playgrounds and beaches. In Washington state, that figure includes Bainbridge Island, Gig Harbor, Puyallup and Poulsbo. have banned smoking at outdoor parks, playgrounds and beaches. Two years ago, Los Angeles extended its smoking ban, which already covered beaches and playgrounds, to include municipal parks. Chicago has banned smoking at its beaches and playgrounds, though smoking is still allowed in many parks.

I see this effort as continuing an approach to contain the harmful effects of smoking. Smoking is already banned in offices, restaurants and on airlines. Smoking in parks bothers children playing there as well as many adults, some of whom have allergies that are exacerbated by smoke.

With any rule or law, there must be a public good at stake that is greater than just feeling good. In this case, it is about public health and containing the costs of maintaining our health. There is also balance here. Just as office workers or restaurant goers step outside for a puff, smokers can step outside of the park, or go home where they remain free to kill themselves slowly on cigarettes.

Marisa Willis, Seattle Times' fall letters editor, offers this sprightly appeal to voters age 18 to 30. Willis is a student journalist, soon to graduate from Western Washington University.

"It’s not Obama, so I’m not voting," is an assertion currently running rampant through the circles of 20-somethings in Seattle and the rest of King County.

The statement falsely assumes since we successfully helped elect our first black president last November, our generation no longer has to care about casting ballots — especially during non-presidential elections, like the one in our midst now.

Wrong.

What happened to the Rock the Vote campaign, steered by celebrities such as Justin Timberlake, Madonna and Leonardo DiCaprio? Did P. Diddy not tell us to either vote, or die? Apparently that threat only takes effect during presidential elections, major elections.

Well, I take offense to that. Assuming youth voters should only be pushed to rally together once every four years degrades and underestimates our generation.
In the 2008 presidential election, an estimated 23 million 18- to 29-year-olds voted, marking the second-largest turnout of youth voters in American history. More than 65 percent of those youth voted for change, and helped elect President Obama; youth voters played a pivotal role that day.

We can obviously make a difference, but we need to vote — and tell our friends to vote — to enact that change in the local elections this year.

Also, the issues facing voters in this election are important — incredibly important. Have you heard of Referendum 71, a state law to expand the benefits of same-sex and senior registered domestic partners? If you believe in families, you should approve R-71. You can only do this if you vote.

There may not be politically-motivated screen-printed T-shirts reminiscent of earlier Che Guevera or Barack Obama eras, but this election is crucial. Every voter has the opportunity to help make history.

And not knowing about the issues or candidates is no excuse — get educated. Read the countless newspaper articles, political blogs and editorial endorsements covering the election. In fact, there is an entire pamphlet dedicated to helping voters make their election decisions. It can most likely be found at the bottom of your mail pile, or in your recycling bin.

Those two Northwest Airlines pilots lost their licenses for good reason. The FAA was no more sympathetic than a clerk at the check-in counter confronted with an overweight bag. The two pilots suffered a stiff penalty because they did not follow elemental rules and they put lives at risk.

No excuse they have offered or eventually concoct as part of an appeal will trump the fact they were out of contact with air traffic controllers for 91 minutes. The nature of their distraction is irrelevant. Conversations, laptops or who knows what, they could not be bothered to respond to the attempts to rouse them. Worse yet, they might have turned off all the devices to get their attention.

No arguments work in their favor. They wanted to be left alone for their own purposes. The route was obviously considered to be such a milk run, they could ignore the outside world. Meanwhile that outside world was panicked enough to consider scrambling planes to challenge the silent aircraft.

The FAA yanked two licenses as punishment, and provide a taste of lash for others. Good.

Matthew Hoh, the U.S. government's Senior Civilian Representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, has resigned and sent his superiors a very intelligent letter, here. It is dated Sept. 10, but I just saw a link to it on the Al Jazeera web page.

Hoh's reason for resigning is essentially that he doesn't think the United States should be involved in what he sees as a 35-year-old civil war in a place and culture Americans don't understand. Of the American soldiers, he writes:

"I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. military has received in Afghanistan... Our forces, devoted and faithful, have been committed to conflict in an indefinite and unplanned manner that has become a cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure."

Good for Hoh.

Matthew Hoh, the U.S. government's Senior Civilian Representative in Zabul Province, Afghanistan, has resigned and sent his superiors a very intelligent letter, here. It is dated Sept. 10, but I just saw a link to it on the Al Jazeera web page.

Hoh's reason for resigning is essentially that he doesn't think the United States should be involved in what he sees as a 35-year-old civil war in a place and culture Americans don't understand. Of the American soldiers, he writes:

"I do not believe any military force has ever been tasked with such a complex, opaque and Sisyphean mission as the U.S. military has received in Afghanistan... Our forces, devoted and faithful, have been committed to conflict in an indefinite and unplanned manner that has become a cavalier, politically expedient and Pollyannaish misadventure."

Good for Hoh.

All this time, I have been expecting Susan Hutchison to become the next King County executive. She may still accomplish that, but a new poll is suggests maybe not. The poll has Dow Constantine ahead by 13 points among likely voters, with many voters in the suburbs still trying to make up their minds.
If the poll is correct, Dow Constantine may have Referendum 71 to thank.
Referendum 71 is a misguided attempt to undo legislation expanding the rights of domestic partners. Oddly, voters should say yes, the measure should be "approved'' because the referendum affirms the earlier-passed law.
The Washington Poll doesn't direclty link Constantine and Referendum 71, but Constantine's strength in the poll among Seattle voters would clearly be enhanced by a highly organized group of people voting FOR Referendum 71.
Hutchison wisely said she supports R-71 as does Constantine, but voters know she has strong Republican ties. Constantine is the obvious Democrat in the newly nonpartisan race.

It is tough to convince a recession-weary nation to not step back, indeed to step up, U.S. spending on global health. This story lays out the cases Bill & Melinda Gates will make on this topic when they address lawmakers in Washington, D.C. this evening.

Nothing clears the mind like a lingering recession. A very focused and determined Congress is currently running the federal government's largest spending programs under a microscope in search of cost-savings. But spending on global health isn't the place to find it.

Instead, President Obama should follow the lead of his predecessor and continue current investments. Under President Bush, the AIDS program launched in 2003 is estimated to have saved more than 1 million lives. Another Bush initiative, focused on malaria, reached an estimated 32 million people last year. The former president also stepped up funding for Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria and now a third of that organization's budget comes from the United States. We should maintain that commitment. Look elsewhere for wasteful spending; money for global health is making a difference.

The Gateses are best-suited to make this argument. As the largest foundation in the world, the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has invested $11.9 billion in global health efforts. These efforts falter if not joined by a large-scale government approach. This is why the U.S. stepped up its spending on global health from $1.5 billion in 2001 to nearly $8 billion this year.

Yes, times are extremely tight. It is tough to argue any budget line item deserves protection, but gains in disease eradication make for a convincing argument.

One initiative by Tim Eyman is not equal to all other Eyman initiatives. I wrote a column last week lambasting the latest proposal, Initiative 1033, because it institutionalizes recession-level spending for governments that already have made big cuts. We can not afford to take more cuts in higher education, K-12 class sizes, public safety and library hours.
What intrigued me most was the response. In the old days, the pro-Eyman crowd would rage hysterically against me for daring to write my opinion against one of his ideas.
This time the tone and emphasis are different. Yes, there are plenty of people voting for his initiative. It might pass. But the emailers' voice has changed a lot.
Many people wrote into to thank me for telling the truth about the initiative. They are voting vociferous no. That is new and a bit different.
But even more intriguing were the responses of people who are voting for the initiative. As a group, albeit an unscientific one, they are no longer mad as hell at government. They are not happy either. But in this case, they are simply down on financial cash and cannot afford any more money for government.

An affinity with minority groups is de rigueur on the political hustings. Say what you like about our post-racial society, attracting minority votes remains a critical part of winning an election. But it is far easier to gain the backing of unions, business groups or environmentalists. Minority voters, who can fall into all or none of these groups, have become anything but a political monolith and that makes it harder to categorize and win them over.

Take Seattle's race for mayor. Last night's debate at KCTS Television started with Joe Mallahan - who frequently touts his working-class Catholic roots and Obama campaign experience - citing Seattle's absymally high black unemployment rate. Later he sought to cement his racial bona fides with: I have been present. I was present in southeast Seattle as an Obama organizer, the people of southeast Seattle know me."

Less doubt still remain, check out Mallahan's endorsements.
King County Councilmember Larry Gossett, 37th District State Representative Eric Pettigrew and Metropolitan Seattle Urban League President James Kelly have all endorsed him. Here they explain their choice. Seattle School Board Member Cheryl Chow and Javier Valdez, Jose Gaitan also garner prominent listing for their endorsement in large part because of their race. Newspapers serving minority communities play a crucial role, hence Northwest Asian Weekly's endorsement of Mallahan.

Opponent Mike McGinn cites his outreach to families affected by gun violence - disproportionately families of color - and touts support from minority lawmakers like Rep. Bob Hasegawa, a South Seattle Democrat. The push for minority voters goes beyond an African-American-Latino-Chinese pardigm to include groups that aren't as established in the political mainstream. McGinn's endorsements include this consortium of local Africans and 19 Vietnamese groups includng the Vietnamese Boy Scouts.

Some might question why these endorsements matter. But that is liking asking why the Chamber of Commerce's endorsement matters. Or why confronting a powerful union cannot be done without considering the political consequences? Political representation remains as much about the aspirations of groups, including ethnic groups, as it does the desires of individual voters. I'm glad the two mayoral candidates are connecting with minority voters, hopefully this isn't just political pandering.