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Virtual Editorial Blog
See what users wrote about our upcoming editorials.
Previous virtual editorial blogs
· Basic health plan cuts and the war on Christmas; Choice; DUI lessons plus reader comments on Seattle streetcars (12/4/2008)
· Money for automakers, school funding and Seattle streetcars. Plus reader comments on viaduct (12/3/2008)
· Viaduct, Bush transition and more plus reader comments on Sound Transit, Justice Sanders (12/2/2008)
· King County elections; Recession, plus Higher education funding; Reader comments on depression (12/1/2008)
· Holiday VEB; King County budget video and Viaduct talk (11/27/2008)
· Morning preview: Daily bailout, Sidewalk maze and County budget. Plus reader comments about Bush leaving early (11/25/2008)
D. Parvaz
Parvaz is away on a fellowship until June 2009.
Cathy Sorbo
City should decriminalize working girls
Also:
· Snark Attack
· Big Three do not have their act together
Joel Connelly
· Nickels enjoys being Seattle mayor, will run again
more columns
Robert L. Jamieson Jr.
· Walking in cops' shoes -- in the line of firemore columns
Mary Swift
· Marathon runner has MS and a bigger causemore columns
Anthony B. Robinson
· Articles of Faith: Leave the selfishness out of your gratitudemore columns
Opinion Leaders
Our editorial board interviews key newsmakers.
Reproductive freedom: Moral objections
P-I Editorial: Difficult as it is to fathom, the war against abortion has morphed into a war on contraception.
Seattle politics: Test isn't optional
P-I Editorial: Former City Council candidate Venus Velazquez exercised her rights to a jury trial and was found not guilty of drunken driving. The system worked. But the field test shouldn't be seen as optional.
Budget & policy: A time to argue
P-I Editorial: Why isn't the governor's phone ringing from citizens worried that children won't be covered by the state's basic health plan? Don't forget: They will still get health care -- in the emergency room, and at far more expensive hourly costs.
Hillary Clinton could be a peacemaker
Helen Thomas: I have been wrong in thinking that women leaders in world affairs would be more compassionate and would hate war and would do their best to avoid it. Not so.
Continuity we can believe in
While Obama was swept into office promising change, his choice of Marine Gen. James Jones as national security adviser probably has U.S. corporate titans breathing easy.
Latest recession might as well be a reason to rejoice
The market isn't supposed to swoon when you tell it what it knew already. Nonetheless it seemed to do precisely that on Monday.
Attacks in Mumbai send out a frightening message
India is no stranger to terrorism. Never before, however, has a terrorist attack had such a dramatic and traumatic effect on the Indian psyche.
Still renting after all these years
I'm relieved that George, my pharmacist spouse from Queens, rejected the red-hot housing market when we moved to Seattle from Manhattan's Upper East Side nearly two years ago.
Down with bailouts, up with incentives
It is outrageous that a nominally GOP administration would fight a financial crisis with every socialist gun blazing and not fire even one bullet in the name of anything that would stimulate private-sector risk taking.
Bankers smoke auto CEOs in bailout Grand Prix
For its part, Congress acts morally superior to both industries, which takes nerve. It gutted regulations that once kept Detroit from guzzling gas and repealed laws that kept Wall Street from turning into a giant slot machine.
End of the high life -- selling the corporate jets
Roll up, roll up. It is the great company jet fire sale. Everything must go -- and quickly. For the credit-crunched giants of corporate America, living on the generosity of the taxpayer, it ill behooves executives to fly luxury class.
Time to party like it's 1933
In selected watering holes across America, it's party time Friday night. It's the 75th anniversary of the end of Prohibition -- when Utah became the deciding 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment and restore the right to drink.
Our stampede mentality
Supposedly what separates us from beasts is the ability to elevate above our urges. Animals supposedly are about only what their noses and glands are dictating. Look around and see us giving animals a bad name.
Raising the world's IQ
Nicholas D. Kristof: The Copenhagen Consensus, which brings together a panel of top global economists to find the most cost-effective solutions to the world's problems, puts micronutrients at the top of the list of foreign-aid spending priorities.
One singular sensation
Ed Rendell can't believe that he's being asked about the fact that he said that Barack Obama's nominee for head of homeland security, Janet Napolitano, has "no life."
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2008
School Finances: Down to the wire
P-I Editorial: A task force on reforming the state's system of public school finances is down to the wire. As it finishes work Monday and Tuesday, the task force must strive to be innovative, creative and bold enough to confront the true needs.
Seattle Streetcars: Catching a ride
P-I Editorial: With a plan for additional streetcars, the City Council can push Seattle toward the kind of flexibility needed in a truly useable, efficient transportation system. You know, sort of a chaos system of transit.
Detroit Bailout: The right strategy
P-I Editorial: We can't let the Big Three fail. But there should be a strategy to build a 21st century industry.
President-elect's jobs plan unclear
George Will: In normal times, the rule for forecasting next year's economy is similar. The problem is that economic forecasts matter most in abnormal times, such as these. The question is: How abnormal are these times?
Housing at risk in Seattle
David Schraer, guest columnist: When housing is in short supply, why are we making it more complex and expensive to build?
Hunger is a crisis we can solve
Joe Gruber and Trish Twomey, guest columnists: Despite the budget constraints of local governments and the diminished resources of local foundations and corporations, community leaders are stepping up in stunning ways to address the hunger crisis among the most vulnerable people.
Research says Summers may have been right
It's worth going back to Larry Summers' remarks to understand what he described, in a masterpiece of understatement, as "some attempts at provocation." He posited three factors to explain the faculty gender gap.
Even Google searches for ways to cut back
The Independent: Times are hard when even Google, the undisputed leader in company perks, is cutting back. But this is what is happening at the mighty search company's student campus-style headquarters in Silicon Valley and at offices around the world.
Bush pardons a bunch of hunters
Time is not on the side of those who would slaughter animals for pleasure. America's fast-growing population is spreading urbanization and suburbanization like small pox.
Will spending today hurt tomorrow's economy?
Paul Krugman: The idea that tight fiscal policy when the economy is depressed actually reduces private investment isn't just a hypothetical argument: It's exactly what happened in two important episodes in history.
Hillary Clinton could be a peacemaker
Helen Thomas: I have been wrong in thinking that women leaders in world affairs would be more compassionate and would hate war and would do their best to avoid it. Not so.
Obama needs to bail out workers
Obama needs to publicly and personally urge Bush to not utterly abandon the American worker. The Joes and Janes of America need their own press conference.
Cluster bombs ban gathers pace but without U.S. and Russia
America and Russia are two big powers refusing to sign a landmark agreement banning cluster bombs, which both nations have used with devastating effect to kill and maim children in Afghanistan.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 3, 2008
Bush Administration: Almost midnight
P-I Editorial: The Bush administration deserves credit for its efforts that appear likely to make the transition go smoothly. But these are also dark days, with Republican political appointees trying to rush through dangerous rule changes.
Alaskan Way Viaduct: Process at work
P-I Editorial: There will be second-guessing until the ribbon is cut on Alaskan Way. But when we look back, after the new boulevard or boulevards open, we think folks will say, "The process worked."
Pedestrians: Detour relief
P-I Editorial: Seattle pedestrians finally appear headed to relief from frequent sidewalk closures during construction. The city and contractors must make new rules work well for pedestrians and property owners.
The Iraq that Obama inherits
Thomas L. Friedman: If Iraq can become a place where Kurds, Sunnis and Shiites can live together with a modicum of stability, it could become a strategic asset for the U.S. in the post- 9/11 effort to promote different politics in the Arab-Muslim world.
Pirates teach lesson in economics
For the past decade, developed nations have largely ignored the failed states of Africa and elsewhere. They have sent aid, and not worried about restoring proper government. The rise of modern-day pirates shows why that isn't good enough.
Sound recovery good for economy
With the Puget Sound Partnership's adoption of the Action Agenda, the region, for the first time, has a science-based, results-oriented road map in place to clean up Puget Sound.
Decision-making process forms policies
The intense concern about a president-elect's future policies and initial appointments appear to have pushed aside other key issues that must be addressed by President-elect Barack Obama during the 77-day transition period.
'Save Employees' pool would keep state workers afloat
Gov. Chris Gregoire has asked Washingtonians to provide suggestions about how the state could cut costs to fill the $5 billion-plus budget hole.
Obama's A-team economists can start With ABCs
With the global financial and economic crisis affecting Main Street and Wall Street, Obama's team should institute a series of fireside chats to help the public understand the issues and how the new administration plans to set things right.
Big business transfers its loyalty, money to Democrats
The Obama administration's promise of swift government action to protect companies and workers is likely to achieve one result that has been unthinkable for 75 years: It will make the Democrats the party of Big Business.
GM offers us a trade-in with pain included
Given that restructuring is inevitable, we must make it orderly and help guide those displaced into more productive paths. Having decided to trade in our auto industry, our focus needs to be on getting the best deal on a greener model.
The unhealed wound of Kashmir
The Mumbai attack is a nightmare for the incoming Obama administration, which, like its predecessor, wants peace between the two nuclear neighbors and Pakistan's attention focused on its own growing Islamic insurgency.
Obama's team of whizzes
Bob Herbert: What I wonder is whether the members of this team, in addition to their grasp of the issues and success at achieving power, have a real feel for the needs of the people they are supposed to be representing.
Race, youth, even burbs go against Republicans
A deeper look at the changing shape of the electorate suggests more fundamental problems for Republicans. Their core constituencies are shrinking, and the wedge issues that used to plague Democrats are now more divisive for Republicans
Condi slinking back to Stanford
In a little more than a month, Condoleezza Rice will be slinking back to her old job at California's Stanford University, where an uncertain welcome awaits her.
Could India-Pakistan conflict go nuclear?
Once again, terrorists struck, slaughtering 174 people in Mumbai in a crisis that may have been malevolently designed to blast the adversarial nuclear neighbors India and Pakistan into war.
Nation-building, take two
David Brooks: The U.S. is not about to begin another explicit crusade to spread democracy. But decent, effective and responsive government would be a start. If Obama and his team can put it into action, that would be continuity we can believe in.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 2, 2008
King County elections: Clear expectations
P-I Editorial: When King County residents vote for an elections director in February, we hope they will have a couple of clearly qualified candidates in front of them who have put forward their ideas, priorities and qualifications articulately.
National security: Re-balancing task
P-I Editorial: With President-elect Barack Obama moving quickly on nominations of top national security officials, the incoming administration should look at rebalancing safety and the rule of law. It's a much-needed discussion.
Recession: Unhappy birthday
P-I Editorial: The president did not cause this mess. We are all contributors to this recession because we wanted easy profits from our dwelling. Everyone was in on the deal: individuals, banks, regulators and government.
Justice Richard Sanders flaunts flamboyance again
State Supreme Court Justice Richard Sanders' shouted disapproval of Bush administration policies on civil liberties isn't surprising. But East Coast writers' attempts to understand him have been entertaining.
Muslims have to confront the truth about Mumbai
As the panic subsides over the Mumbai attacks, it is the duty of all world citizens to confront truths, however inconvenient.
Marine highway would ride wave of economic benefits
On a "U.S. Marine Highway" new, fuel-efficient U.S.-built ships can take thousands of trucks off U.S. roads and cut truck carbon emissions that contribute to global warming while generating cargo-handling jobs at U.S. ports.
Cook stirs love into every meal
"Chef" has pretty much replaced "gourmet cook" to describe anyone who cooks well. I must confess that the growing use of the word bothers me.
Monster in closet is recession, not deflation
Given all the real problems facing the U.S. economy, dragging out the remote danger of deflation is foolish. It's just short of fear-mongering.
A penny for my thoughts?
Maureen Dowd: In Pasadena, Calif., James Macpherson has pioneered "glocal" news -- outsourcing Pasadena coverage to India at Pasadena Now, his daily online "newspaperless."
Team provides an iron fist for future president's velvet glove
The core of Obama's vision is to boost America's "soft power" by sending ever-greater numbers of diplomats and aid workers abroad with the aim of preventing conflicts and patching together teetering states.
Global economy needs bold, unorthodox remedies
A lot of policy has been far too timid. Halting the world economy's decline will demand something rather bolder than anything seen so far in this crisis.
Washington experience is 'in' again
Obama promises to hit the ground running to stave off predicted waves of layoffs. The first test will be whether he can get his economic stimulus package enacted right away.
Urgency missing from showroom floor
When the GM, Ford and Chrysler CEOs arrive with their plan for taxpayer charity, they might think about how those selling their products may be undercutting their efforts.
Putting a face on big auto
Bob Herbert: We can rescue and reshape the auto industry in a way that makes sense, economically and otherwise. Or we can close our eyes to reality, as we have so many times in recent years, and suffer the inevitable devastating consequences.
Terrorism that's personal
Nicholas D. Kristof: Acid attacks and wife-burnings are common in parts of Asia because the victims are the most voiceless in these societies: They are poor and female. The first step is simply for the world to take note, to give voice to these women.
Jihad's true face
So jihadists kill innocents in Mumbai -- and racial profiling in America is decried. Is it just that liberal academics are required to include some alleged ugly American phenomenon in everything they write?
MONDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2008
Attack on Mumbai: World unifies again
P-I Editorial: For Americans, the attacks in India's Mumbai have special meaning. The coldly planned crimes targeted the world's most populous democracy.
AIDS Day: No time to retreat
P-I Editorial: In poorer countries hit hard by the AIDS epidemic, more people than ever have a chance at effective treatment and long-term survival. That progress points the way toward possible further gains.
Global warming: Too close to home
P-I Editorial: Which is scarier -- the economy or global warming? Climate change gets our vote, in part because it will be with us for decades to come.
First Person: Bus rapid transit a HOT way to get there
You try to remember: Just what were they thinking when voters decided to spend $18 billion (with taxing authority up to $107 billion) for a light rail system back in 2008?
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2008
Seattle Schools: School closures a work in progress
P-I Editorial: Seattle schools administrators and board members are on the right track. For budget reasons, they must close a half-dozen schools.
Judging the Bush years: Well-educated or much-schooled?
John I. Goodlad, guest columnist: The No Child Left Behind Act approved by Congress in 2001 is President Bush's major intervention and the federal government's most intrusive entry ever into public schooling. Both praise of and blame for the act's consequences have been dumped on Bush.
WTO reduced to semblance of democracy
Janet Thomas, guest columnist: It's been nine years since the Battle in Seattle and the WTO demonstrations that rocked the free trade movement to its core. What transpired on the streets inspired the WTO's marginalized smaller countries to stand up and speak out for their own economic rights. As a result, it is no longer an organization in which a few wealthy countries make all the decisions in their own interests.
Bank shame is averted by pushing kids into piracy
Mark Gilbert, columnist: Here are some alternative professions you should consider steering your offspring toward in order to avoid the stigma of having a finance professional in the family.
So far, so good on Obama transition
Ann McFeatters, columnist: There are signs adult minds are on the job. They tell us belt-tightening will not soon disappear. The pain will last at least two more years. Obama says we must make more sacrifices, something Bush never admitted. That honesty is a start.
NASCAR hits the skids
Guy Adams, columnist: The faltering economy has hit NASCAR with a triple whammy of financial setbacks that place a dark cloud of uncertainty over the racetracks that represent a traditional spiritual home to the obsessions and values of blue-collar America.
Undoing Guantanamo will be tricky
The central problem is not Guantanamo but the rules that govern the fate of its inmates. The case of Salim Hamdan illustrates a number of the questions that Obama will need to resolve if he is to make good on the campaign pledge to close it.
Obama's impressive economic team
The Economist: Obama's policies may not be any more successful at combating the financial crisis and recession than those of Bush. But it does seem safe to say that economics will play a bigger part in the formation of those policies.
A welcome, but wise?, appointment
The Economist: Does Timothy Geithner's previous career, mostly as a government bureaucrat in the central bank, really equip him for the job?
Obama steps forcefully into vacuum
Dan K. Thomasson, columnist: Obama has stepped forcefully into the vacuum left by an incumbent president who obviously wishes it was Jan. 20 and that he was on his way back to Texas.
Here we go again?
George Will: A new New Deal would vindicate pessimists who say that history is not one damn thing after another, it is the same damn thing over and over.
SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 29, 2008
It's a depression
Helen Thomas: I grant you I have yet to see former wealthy men selling apples on the street corner as I did during the Great Depression in the early 1930s but the current uncertainty is cause for worry.
Stimulus for skeptics
David Brooks: The government should create a network of social entrepreneurship investment banks. These regionally operated semi-public funds would invest in the best local community organizations, so they could bring their ideas to scale.
Lest we forget
Paul Krugman: Even though the incoming administration's agenda is already very full, it should not put off financial reform. The time to start preventing the next crisis is now.
Malcolm X, lost cause martyr
Stanley Crouch, columnist: James Baker once said the free advice from a man who offered his opinions often was worth what Baker paid for it. This is how blacks in America need to take Ayman al-Zawahiri's recent tape praising Malcolm X and condemning Barack Obama.
Mumbai shows up Western hypocrisy
Patrick Cockburn, The Independent: The origins of the men who slaughtered so many will emerge in coming days. Already the butchery should underline one of the greatest of many failings of the Bush administration post- 9/11. Pakistan was always the real base for al-Qaida.
Let's get back to a Defense Department
John Young, guest columnist: Obama is right about taking out bin Laden wherever we can find him. That's not a job for armored columns and occupying forces. Let's get back to where the Pentagon isn't the Department of Nation- Building or the Department of Occupation.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 28, 2008
King County: Just say no
P-I Editorial: The King County Council should take a tough stand on the expensive, lax contract negotiated with sheriff's deputies. Council members should say no, even at the risk of having a potentially worse contract imposed through arbitration.
Does political nature influence teaching?
George Will: The controversy about the rights and duties of college professors is a hardy perennial. Concerning which, Stanley Fish has written an often intelligent but ultimately sly and evasive book, "Save the World on Your Own Time."
Tent City is temporary answer to long-term problem for homeless
Hubert G. Locke: Individual or even statewide efforts to solve homelessness will get nowhere; what we face is a national dilemma that only a carefully thought-out federal policy and resources can address successfully.
If Citicorp, why not GM?
It will be years before we know if government bailouts of financial and other institutions were a good idea or not. While we're in the midst of bailing out the planet (or so it seems) one question comes to mind. If Citicorp, why not GM?
Getting the GOP back on track
It's going to be a long, rocky road back to relevance for Republicans if they don't do certain things.
Israel must end Gaza blockade
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has criticized Israel over its blockade of the overcrowded Gaza, home to close to 1.5 million Palestinians. The U.N. Relief and Works Agency is warning of a humanitarian "catastrophe."
Obama will take us backward by channeling Keynes
The important thing to recognize is that the record of actions taken in economists' name is mixed. Try this sentence: We're not all Keynesians now.
Sick-leave issue connects with every worker
On Election Day, Milwaukee voters decided businesses must provide full-time workers nine days of paid sick leave a year. Firms of fewer than 10 must provide five paid sick days. San Francisco and Washington also mandate paid sick days.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 27, 2008
Holiday Giving: A generous stretch
P-I Editorial: This holiday, the giving part of the day's name will come to many minds. That's because the needs are growing.
Hunger: A meal every day
P-I Editorial: A new report by the Children's Alliance, Hungry in Washington 2008, warns of hunger growing across the state.
There's opportunity in every crisis
Chi-Dooh Li: We hear much about community; we see little of it in reality. That may change soon. Whether through open freezers or open homes, we may come to experience real community -- by necessity -- like we never have before.
Michelle Obama sketches traditional role
What does it say about the condition of modern women that Michelle Obama, catapulted by her husband's election into the ranks of the most prominent, sounded so strangely retro -- more Jackie Kennedy than Hillary Clinton.
CEOs give thanks to Hank this Thanksgiving
No time to point fingers, to make the bailout "punitive and difficult." Why not? That's exactly what it should be, or it will happen again; others too big to fail will know they can be bailed out without personal consequence.
Why it's easier to count our blessings now
Jay Bookman, guest columnist: It might seem harder to give thanks in tough times such as these, but that's not how the human minds works. In fact, the opposite is often true: It is hard for most of us to be grateful in good times when everything is going well.
Clinton as secretary of state would be Obama's first mistake
Adrian Hamilton, The Independent: The Obama camp, and the U.S. at large, tends to exaggerate the extent to which a new face as such, however well known and admired, is all the world wants to wipe away the memory of George Bush and make America admired and loved again.
A modest proposal for the Big 3
John Kelso, guest columnist: Let's turn this into a competition. When these car poobahs return to Washington to make another run at the money, why don't they dihen tch their jets and drive their best hybrids cross-country from Detroit to D.C.?
GM Car of the Year ... in Europe?
Martin Schram, columnist: While you may think finally Detroit has a car for you, Big Auto's execs did have one more thing more they needed to tell you about their prize-winning Opel Insignia and runner-up Ford Fiesta: Sorry, you can't buy them here. Only in Europe.
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The opinions in our daily editorials are the consensus views of the Post-Intelligencer Editorial Board.
Board members conduct research, including interviewing people who represent various points of view on a topic, and meet together to decide the newspaper’s positions. A board member is assigned to write each editorial, expressing the board’s viewpoint on the subject.
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