 |
Virtual Editorial Board
See what users wrote about our upcoming editorials.
Previous virtual editorial boards
· Divestment column, FBI fights crime again; plus reader comments (7/18/2008)
· Rethink initiative, marijuana raids plusr eader comments on economy, detention center (7/17/2008)
· David Horsey's cartoon, Birth control rules, Tacoma detention, Pat Tillman; Reader comments on Obama (7/16/2008)
· Dentists, Obama's foreign policy and Pay to Play; Reader comments: Environment, troop withdrawal (7/15/2008)
· Fannie & Freddie, EPA offshore drilling and Lora Lake plus reader comments (7/14/2008)
· Weekend edition: Supe's salary, Runoff, FEMA trailers; Reader Comments: Obama's changes (7/11/2008)
D. Parvaz
Divesting is interesting alternative to war
Cathy SorboJoel Connelly
· Ex-Soviet prisoner stands up for Israel
more columns
Robert L. Jamieson Jr.
· It's not just traffic-circle rage -- it's a life lost for nothingmore columns
Mary Swift
· Nothing humane about a concrete gas canmore columns
Opinion Leaders
Our editorial board interviews key newsmakers.
Fighting crime (again) at FBI
P-I Editorial: Will the next president restore the FBI's ability to fight domestic crime? We hope so. Barack Obama is saying the right things. John McCain is harder to read optimistically.
Investors' denial phase should be over by now
The Economist: By tradition, sequels are pale shadows of their forerunners. In this financial crisis, each episode in the saga seems even more potent than the last.
Summer sea ice has gone missing
Michael Gerson, guest columnist: At the Arctic Circle, a desolate, grand sea suddenly has come to the center of world attention for one reason: The pace of climate change is faster than expected. In the past 50 years as much as half of summer sea ice has gone missing.
Obama, McCain place premium on public service
Albert R. Hunt, guest columnist: John McCain and Barack Obama, drawing on formative experiences, have a common grain: a commitment to service and a determination to foster public-private partnerships to address some of the nation's social and economic ills.
Americans don't appear to have a clue about irony
Sarah Churchwell, guest columnist: Everyone knows that Americans don't understand irony. Soon after moving to England from the U.S., I discovered that my country was universally assumed to be an irony-free zone.
McCain becoming the 'Whatshisname' of 2008 race
Marianne Means: Marianne Means, syndicated columnist: Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., is trying, he really is. But not since Democrat George McGovern in 1972 and Republican Bob Dole in 1996 has a presidential candidate faced such overwhelming political odds, both personally and philosophically.
Bush is convenient to Israel in terms of Iran
Robert W. Gee, guest columnist: An envoy said the State Dept. is considering opening a diplomatic post in Iran, suggesting a possible shift toward greater engagement. But hawks in Jerusalem and D.C. see the twilight of the Bush administration as a last military chance.
Americans are shunning the great outdoors. Why?
The Economist: America's environmental movement emerged in the 19th century to push for national parks. In the 20th century it sold them to the public through photographs and writing. It now seems bent on driving people away from them.
Al-Qaida's self-destructive gene
The Economist: Al-Qaida will not be defeated by America but rather by governments in the Muslim world that manage to extend their writ across its lawless areas. This will take time, Western assistance and much diplomatic skill.
Can we stop the aquatic invaders from S. America?
Silvio Laccetti and Charles Kontos, guest columnists: Armed with voracious appetites and explosive reproductive capabilities, giant rat-like swamp creatures from another continent lurk deep within a dark, otherworldly bayou.
The lessons of recent economic history
Dan Rather, guest columnist: In uncertain times, it pays to be sure about the rules, especially when nest eggs are involved. But IndyMac to the contrary, the regulations that followed in the wake of the 1930s should well insulate us from any replay of that era.
SATURDAY, JULY 19, 2008
The coming activist age
David Brooks: We're entering an era of epic legislation. There are at least five large problems that will compel the federal government to act in gigantic ways over the next few years.
Obama's great overseas adventure
For network anchors to follow Obama across the ocean on his get-acquainted tour is a bit too fawning. It's a pure violation of the rapidly disappearing rule that the media is at least supposed to try to appear fair and balanced.
Airlines are reeling but order books are bulging
It is usually axiomatic that when your customers are in trouble, you are too. But at this week's biennial Farnborough air show, the aviation industry's biggest bash this year, that was not how it looked.
Christie Brinkley's not the only victim of divorce
A growing body of economic literature has added up the cost of divorce and the related problem of single parenthood and found them to be astonishingly large. These costs have policy makers scratching their heads and looking for solutions.
Twin twisters, Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae, wreak disaster
Regulation is necessary but beware the state being seduced into taking on duties it cannot carry out well. As Fannie and Freddie show, regulators are easily captured and outwitted. The best controls are transparency and competition.
The L-ish economic prospects
Paul Krugman: If the experience of the last 20 years is any guide, the prospect for the economy isn't V-shaped, it's L-ish: rather than springing back, we'll have a prolonged period of flat or at best slowly improving performance.
Obama's summer of success
As he heads off to Europe, Obama has every right to be pleased with his impressive summer performance.
Science proves women's brains are different
Men and women show differences in behavior because their brains are physically distinct organs, new research suggests. Male and female brains appear to be constructed from markedly different genetic blueprints.
Obama steers clear of Michigan Muslims he may need to win state
While Obama is leading in Michigan polls, some politicians said it would be a mistake for him not to actively court the state's Muslim voters, who went for Democrat John Kerry four years ago and Republican George W. Bush in 2000.
FRIDAY, JULY 18, 2008
Initiative process: Reason to rethink
P-I Editorial: Could Secretary of State Sam Reed still change his mind about accepting egregiously mislabeled initiative petitions? We'd like to think the steady public leader would reverse his decision to ignore a flagrant mistake on the petitions.
Medical Marijuana: Supposedly legal
P-I Editorial: After reading that Seattle police searched a University District medical marijuana clinic this week, we searched the story for the reason behind the raid. Medical marijuana is, after all, legal in our state. So why is it a big deal?
Nuclear power no solution to climate change
While the presidential candidates trade barbs and accuse each other of flip-flopping, they agree with President Bush on their enthusiastic support for nuclear power. But nuclear power is not a solution to climate change -- it causes problems.
Bid farewell to U.S. popularity
Thomas L. Friedman: Maybe Asians, Europeans, Latin Americans and Africans don't like a world of too much American power -- "Mr. Big" got a little too big for them. But how would they like a world of too little American power?
Make investment in transit now
Last year voters turned down Proposition 1, a package that included 50 miles of light rail and 182 miles of highways. The Sierra Club opposed that package. Today, the Sierra Club supports Sound Transit presenting the best possible transit-only plan to voters in November.
Barack Obama and affirmative action
What impact would an African-American in the White House have on racial preferences? The liberal left has not done much by way of debating the issue thus far in the presidential race. But the conservative right sure has.
Same-sex marriage feeling normal in Massachusetts
Same-sex marriage has begun to feel normal in Massachusetts. It doesn't come up in conversation much anymore. There is no greater force against bigotry than the moment when something becomes so routine that you stop noticing it.
Human Life Amendment making its ballot debut
Anti-abortion absolutists have been unable to get at abortion head on. A Colorado ballot measure is yet another backdoor route by which they have been trying to re-criminalize abortion ever since it was legalized more than a generation ago.
Phil Gramm meant what he said
Stop whining. Go shopping. Consumerism is virtue. Credit is no vice. Bigger is better, no questions asked, when it comes to business. Multinational always trumps national. And not just in Scrabble.
A welcome change of tack by Washington
Washington's change of approach towards Iran is a sensible move from war-war to jaw-jaw at a time when talks between Iran and the European U.N. members over Iran's nuclear ambitions appear to be making some headway.
The candidates that roared
Marianne Means: An Obama appearance drawing a large crowd in Berlin would be meant to reinforce his current desperate campaign to latch on to the Kennedy legend, but it could not replicate the real thing.
Welcome, Mr. Would-be President Obama
Barack Obama still definitely has the edge in his race against John McCain, but opinion at home diverges sharply from that in most of the rest of the world.
National Mall needs some pampering
The National Mall requires a long-range plan that addresses the underlying problems, the most serious of which is overuse of the Mall as a place of festivals and rallies.
We have everything to fear from McCain
Warren Buffet pointed out that Phil Gramm has twice tossed "financial weapons of mass destruction" into the U.S. economy. Yet instead of shunning him, John McCain made Gramm the co-chair of his presidential campaign.
THURSDAY, JULY 17, 2008
Candidates appeal to Americans' selfish instincts
Judging by the candidates' speeches, their worry is not just that Americans aren't turning down Wall Street in large enough numbers. It is that they have disengaged from public life.
Obama quickly changing policy positions
What is unconventional is how quickly and how drastically Obama has changed his positions on so many issues, and how so many people so caught up in the messianic aura of Obamamania were so gullible to believe he would do otherwise.
What's so shocking about satire?
Vigilant though we ever must be, I find myself wondering whether the citizens whose presidential vote will be shaped by a misapprehension formed from a stride-by glance at a magazine cover really number in the millions.
Federal Detention: Humane for all
P-I Editorial: Behind our backs, much is being done in the name of Americans that should shame us. We count a new report on the Northwest Detention Center in Tacoma, which houses immigrants believed to be here illegally, as the latest example of that.
May we mock, Barack?
Maureen Dowd: If Obama keeps being stingy with his quips and smiles, and if the dominant perception of him is that you can't make jokes about him, it might infect his campaign with an airless quality. His humorlessness could spark humor.
Exchange in Middle East clears the way for new beginning
The macabre exchange that took place this week on the border between Israel and Lebanon is being widely presented as the final chapter in the ill-fated war of two years ago.
Family Planning: Striking Plan B
P-I Editorial: The Bush administration continues its fight to prevent women from accessing birth control. A new proposal takes issue with state laws requiring hospitals to provide rape victims with emergency contraception.
Rural property owners win one
Brian T. Hodges and Steve Hammond, guest columnists: Washington law is clear on this point -- the county bears the strict burden of proving that an owner's proposed use will in fact cause some harm before it can limit the use of the property.
Mystery caller and VA help line
Martin Schram, guest columnist: VA helpline representatives gave answers that often were totally wrong, most often partially wrong, rarely completely accurate -- sometimes embarrassingly unprofessional and occasionally downright rude.
A whiner apologizes for nation's financial woes
Ah, yes, that mental recession thing again. It's all in our heads, even when it's in our wallets. I sincerely want to have the right attitude in case I get blamed for the national debt, but that old whiner in me just won't let go.
Pat Tillman: The whole story
P-I Editorial: If there was no campaign to conceal the reasons for Pat Tillman's death, then we should have the whole story by now, right? Not so.
County plans to stanch the flooding
Pete Lewis and Matt Larson, guest columnist: Fortunately, King County isn't waiting for the next big flood. The King County executive, council and the cities have adopted an aggressive flood control plan and the funding to implement it.
Homeland Security out to revolutionize air travel
Our protectors over at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security are investigating a technology that should revolutionize air travel.
An underappreciated scandal of bipartisan dimensions
Ruth Marcus, guest columnist: A measure requiring disclosure of library donations -- during a presidency and for four years afterward -- has twice passed the House. But Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens blocked the measure in March.
Obama emphasizes personal responsibility
Marsha Mercer, guest columnist:The question is whether Jesse ackson and his allies will continue to question Barack Obama's commitment to the black community.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 16, 2008
Dental Oversight: Open prescription
P-I Editorial: Open wide would be a good prescription for further progress in the state's system for reviewing serious illnesses and deaths that occur during dental work. Transparency can only build accountability, assurance of quality care and trust.
Presidential Campaign: A tricky balance
In his speech on foreign policy Tuesday, Sen. Barack Obama took the kind of sweeping view that gives us hope for an America that again addresses larger issues. He looked to our past for inspiration and confidence about the future.
Bribery Or Politics? Cash accounting
We've been riveted by a recent Sunday Times of London piece on how Republican consultant Stephen Payne (who sits on the Homeland Security Council) came to offer a Kazakh politician meetings with Bush administration officials in exchange for cash.
Why mess with the Americans with Disabilities Act?
The cost to the taxpayers of the proposal is estimated at $23 billion but officials contend this outlay will be offset by the value of public benefits of $54 billion. I can't understand how those benefits can be measured monetarily.
Obama has nothing to fear but himself
Most of America will be run by the same people no matter who wins the election -- the oil companies, WalMart, Murdoch etc. And Obama has set out not to disrupt their rule but to manage it.
For Obama, a questionable venue for history
Obama's decision to jack up the stagecraft on his acceptance speech by having it in a stadium helps make McCain's case. Instead of focusing on what Obama will be saying, the Dems are calling special attention to where he's saying it.
Guest Columnists: From great scholars to great leaders
Advanced Placement programs work because students, parents and educators come together to give students the necessary tools to succeed, including the message that excellence matters.
It takes a school, not missiles
Nicholas D. Kristof: A lone Montanan staying at the cheapest guest houses has done more to advance U.S. interests in the Pakistan region than the entire military and foreign policy apparatus of the Bush administration.
Put Helmsley's billions to use in animal shelters
The important question is not whether the "queen" was crazy. It's how to ensure that the historic opportunity provided by Leona Helmsley -- bequeathing $8 billion for dogs -- isn't squandered.
Law skewed in favor of builders
Brian Weinstein, guest columnist: Until the Homebuyer Bill of Rights is passed, a potential homebuyer who buys a home without first hiring a lawyer to negotiate their contract does so at their peril.
TUESDAY, JULY 15, 2008
U.S. economy: Rescue or miscue?
P-I Editorial: Federal regulators swept up most of the pieces from one big financial mess in California, but they are hardly done with jobs requiring cleaning up, patching up and bailing out. At every level, more fundamental issues may be in play.
Environment: A record of soot
P-I Editorial: How far can an administration go in destroying its own country's environment? We won't know for sure until President Bush leaves office, but his record, and that of his administration, borders on criminal.
Lora Lake Apartments: Toxic conclusion
P-I Editorial: Those who railed against saving the affordable Lora Lake Apartments were no doubt thrilled to hear that the apartments -- among the few precious one left for low-income families -- are too contaminated to inhabit.
Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and you
Paul Krugman: The storm over these particular lenders is overblown. Fannie and Freddie probably will need a government rescue. But since it's clear that that rescue will take place, their problems won't take down the economy.
Birth-control denial the height of arrogance
Those who seek a right to dispense pharmaceuticals should never be allowed to pick and choose which prescriptions they honor based on extraneous considerations such as religious convictions or assertions it violates their own personal codes.
Kids feed their brains and tummies
This is the fourth summer in a row that kids in Skykomish have been able to participate in a program that increases their reading skills and keeps their bellies full.
Local ports churn economic engines on backs of short-haul truck drivers
The Ports of Seattle and Tacoma churn their economic engines on the backs of short-haul truck drivers who are underpaid and underprotected.
Bush to hasten Iraq troop withdrawal in bid to help McCain win White House
President Bush wants to speed up the withdrawal of American combat troops from Iraq, a move that could help to quell the anti-war anxieties of voters before November's presidential election.
Faith in Phil Gramm calls McCain's judgment in question
Bob Herbert: What does it say about John McCain's judgment that Phil Gramm was one of his top -- possibly his pre-eminent -- economic adviser? What does it say about McCain's judgment that in 1996, he believed Gramm was the best choice to be president?
The real-life '24' of summer 2008
Frank Rich: Top Bush hands are starting to get sweaty about where they left their fingerprints. Scapegoating the rotten apples at the bottom of the military's barrel may not be a slam-dunk escape route from accountability anymore.
The character of optimism
Tony Snow was a conservative. But he didn't have a prejudice in favor of melancholy. His deep Christian faith combined with his natural exuberance to give him an upbeat world view.
In any language, GOP knows how to say ignorance mongering
So it's official: The president of the United States thinks a journalist is snicker-bait for speaking French to the president of France, in France.
Obama shows off his dad cred
Maureen Dowd: Barack Obama may make it to the Rose Garden, but he'll still be an orchid. For all his attempts to act like a sturdy American perennial, he's a genuine hothouse flower, and everything he is and does is cultivated.
MONDAY, JULY 14, 2008
Seattle schools: Too hasty a reward
P-I Editorial: We've heard the pace of inflation has quickened. But that was one fast, hefty boost the Seattle School Board made in the superintendent's salary. The board made an awful choice introducing and acting on the 10 percent increase the same day.
Toxic trailers: Fuming at FEMA
P-I Editorial: It's not so much buying the trailers for which FEMA and the government should be blamed. It's denying and trying to hide the dangerous nature of the trailer fumes -- something Gulf Stream apparently warned FEMA about -- that's the real issue.
First Person: Pedaling allows for freedom of movement
For a newish convert to bicycle commuting it's easier to ride a bike to work than it is to get into her car and start it.
SUNDAY, JULY 13, 2008
Robots revolt in favor of humanity
Michael Gerson, guest columnist: For a children's movie, "WALL-E" begins with startling bleakness: epic landscapes of the Earth buried under the waste of endless human wants.
Rights apply to teenagers, too
Frank D. Lomonte, guest columnist: Let's start with an unremarkable proposition: Teenagers have constitutional rights.
Puget Sound: We're the polluters
P-I Editorial: Stormwater runoff is about all of us. No matter how an appeal by environmentalists for better state controls ends up, the public will play a key role in controlling the pollution.
McCain's budget figures don't add up
Scot Lehigh, syndicated columnist: Obama is a long way from being a deficit hawk but he deserves credit for giving voters a reasonable idea of how he'd operate. McCain is asking them to buy a pig in a poke.
Candidates advised to flip-flop with grace
Margaret Carlson, guest columnist: There are two kinds of people -- and candidates -- in the world: One says the U.S. troop "surge" is working, therefore we must stay in Iraq. The other says the surge is working, therefore we can leave.
They came, they jawed, they failed to conquer
The Economist: The G8 rose to the challenges of food, fuel and the financial credit crunch with platitudes, and little effort was made to resolve the contradiction between calls for larger oil supplies and the promise of a low-carbon future.
A timetable here, a timetable there
Dan Rather, syndicated columnist: For all the political rhetoric in the U.S. and Iraq, the "conditions on the ground" we keep hearing about are likely to be the determining factor for all sides -- Obama and McCain, and Bush and Maliki alike.
Obama needs to embrace centrism as matter of conviction
The Economist: The vital question is not whether Obama is changing his positions but whether he is changing them for better or worse. Here the picture is largely positive.
SATURDAY, JULY 12, 2008
Editorial Commentary: The tired politics of racial division
If Barack Obama has any sense, he will ignore Jesse Jackson's advice and stick with the message of hope that has served him so well.
America's great tomato scare reveals FDA's inertia
Can't a nation that makes tissues pop up one at a time out of a box and sells plastic bottles of tap water for $1 each develop a salmonella-proof tomato?
Barack not making nice to Hillary
Marianne Means: The bitter hassles between Sen. Barack Obama's people and Sen. Hillary Clinton's people were supposed to be resolved by now, with joint fund-raising efforts and a public show of mutual respect, if not exactly affection. Fat chance!
Your opinion
What do other readers think? See results of recent polls in P-I editorials.
Because of contractual limitations, opinion pieces written by some syndicated columnists and other contributors are not available online at this time. They remain available in the Seattle P-I newspaper.
The P-I welcomes contributed essays of up to 550 words sent to editpage@seattlepi.com.
To read or find out how to send us a letter, visit the Letters to the Editor page.
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.
Members of the board are Ken Bunting, Joe Copeland, David Horsey, Kimberly Mills, Roger Oglesby, D. Parvaz and Mark Trahant. (To send them an e-mail, click on their names.)
It is the policy of the P-I’s Editorial Board to promptly correct factual errors in editorials and in opinion essays. Click here for details on how corrections are handled.
101 Elliott Ave. W.
Seattle, WA 98119
(206) 448-8000
Home Delivery: (206) 464-2121 or (800) 542-0820
seattlepi.com serves about 1.7 million unique visitors
and 30 million page views each month.
Send comments to newmedia@seattlepi.com
Send investigative tips to iteam@seattlepi.com
©1996-2008 Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Terms of Use/Privacy Policy
