This story does an even better job of exposing Terry McAuliffe. I wonder if he'll crawl under a rock for a few months until the dust settles on all the "corporate responsibility" and insider trading scandals.

This analysis of the PC economy and the Microsoft anti-trust ruling is the best I have read--I wish I had written it.

This should be especially interesting for all those Democrats who try to claim that the government had a role in the growth of the stock market in the 1990s; maybe this will enlighten you as to the government's power to damage the true engine of growth--hard working businessmen and women. Usually, the government's role is similar to that of the amazed mother-in-law who stares incredulously at the success her no-account son-in-law became--despite her warnings to her daughter.

From FoxViews at the Fox News site:

Sam Donaldson interviewed Terry McAuliffe on This Week. Appearing to be enjoying an adrenaline rush, the Democratic party leader stood by his criticism of Bush and the upcoming economic forum.
He also defended his Global Crossing investment by saying he was a "venture capitalist."

A jovial Donaldson appeared to enjoy McAuliffe’s energy level and failed to press him on the issues.

Now that's funny. Terry McAuliffe, the venture capitalist? As this story in Business 2.0 points out, McAuliffe was simply offered a chance to buy pre-IPO shares that were frequently flipped--sold for a quick profit after the IPO date--in the 1990s. McAuliffe was smart enough--or lucky enough--to hold onto his shares until 1999 and sell them for $18 million.

If McAuliffe were a "venture capitalist", he'd have done due diligence, reviewing start up business plans. He would have stayed awake at night worrying about the money he had at risk, about tough personnel decisions he might have to make. Nope, Terry is just a friend of a contributor to the Democratic party who got in on one of the most lucrative opportunities of the past century. Whether McAuliffe did anything wrong or not, he is certainly stretching the truth by calling himself anything but a crony of a fat cat.

Will there be a baseball strike? Reports out of the player representative meetings in Chicago today seem to indicate that the answer is yes. That is sad news indeed for all of us baseball fans.

My wife was offered a chance to buy Mariner’s playoff tickets for this season. I would jump at the chance, despite the slender lead the team is clinging to, if not for the threat of a strike.

We bought SeaHawk season tickets earlier in the month. Although Seattle’s star quarterback, Trent Dilfer, sprained his knee in an exhibition game Saturday, I’m still cautiously optimistic about the season.

Football—college and pro—is the number one sport in America. NASCAR appears to be well on its way to breaking into the top three, if not the top two. A baseball strike will only hasten the change. NASCAR drivers do not strike. Neither do professional golfers.

In an era of declining discretionary income, baseball cannot afford to take fan loyalty for granted. My wife and I had a great time on a tour with the BMW club on Saturday. We may decide that our spare time—and dollars—are all accounted for with SeaHawks and driving adventures.

Baseball, be careful. Will the networks pay for rights to games no one watches?

Now we read that Saddam plans to draw US forces into Iraq’s cities rather than deploy his armies in the desert. Apparently, he thinks that he can bog us down in house to house fighting, popping up to shoot at us from a rabbit warren of tunnels and bunkers underground.

Hmmm.

As I recall, a favorite tactic in modern mobile warfare is to bypass enemy strongholds in order to capture and hold strategic chokepoints. If Saddam hides his army, we could set up an interdiction plan to control his borders, destroy his media outlets (and replace them with ours), secure his oilfields, and generally starve him out in the open. This would take more than a few weeks of bombing followed by a few days of combat, as in Bush vs. Saddam I, but would be even more effective. We could create an UN-administered zone containing the captured territory and leave him the ruler of a land-locked, resource poor slum.

As for using his Scuds to launch terror weapons from Baghdad at Israel or Kuwait, does anyone think that we have not improved our ability to shoot down his largely ineffective missiles since the Gulf War?

$6 per barrel oil, anyone?

Things move more slowly in summer. The pace of the war against terrorism seems to be moving slowly in Afghanistan, but moves all too quickly if Israel’s battlefront is included. Moreover, it should be--the PLO and Arafat’s "government" are no less bent on genocide now than at any time in its sad history. The Israeli government must feel profoundly bitter and torn as they transfer funds to the Palestinian "government" in the aftermath of the recent university bombing.

Russia is assisting Iran with the construction of nuclear plants. That bears repeating. Russia is assisting Iran with the construction of nuclear plants. Fortunately, the Russian government is reconsidering its plans after pressure from the Bush administration.

Iraq now says that it may readmit UN weapons inspectors. Of course, Saddam Hussein has had years to perfect his camouflage techniques for his weapons stores and death factories.

Jordan’s King Abdullah says that talk of deposing Saddam is "somewhat ludicrous". Of course, Jordan depends heavily on support from Iraq, making the King’s motives subject to question.

The Saudi royal family is lead by a man near death in a hospital in Switzerland. Will his successor be friendly to the West? Or will his successor do anything to retain power, continuing to tolerate and even finance religious extremists up to the minute of his execution?

Indonesia, the largest predominately Muslim nation in the world, has its share of terrorists and revolutionaries who threaten its stability. The same is true of the Philippines. The US is trying to shore up these governments with aid, including anti-terrorism training for their armed forces.

The Russians are trying to exact heavy tolls and establish virtual control over oil shipped across the Caspian Sea from land-locked countries in the region. It recently held a series of naval exercises there that are clearly efforts to intimidate its oil-producing neighbors.

The list of truly serious problems goes on and on almost without end. Our nation, which seemed to want to turn inward after the 1992 election, cannot shirk its role in the world. However, we must accept that simple solutions are not to be found in any of these cases. Europe is long on criticism of US policy, but short on action--except in support of Arafat and Saddam. When and where we act, and act we should in many of these cases, we must accept that long-term US commitment to each of these regions is required to help foster stability and peace.

A slow summer indeed.

I wonder if bin Laden is still alive. We have read conflicting statements from those supposedly in the know in and out of government. What a blow it would be to the al-Qaida and their cronies if his body could be positively identified! What a boost it would be domestically!

As for the economy, who does the average investor trust to tell them that it is safe to invest again? Rather than the death of a hated enemy, who could return--alive--to save us? I doubt that a politician could have that kind of impact. Would a positive ruling in favor of Microsoft have the opposite effect of the guilty verdict back in early 2000 on the market? Would tech stocks bounce?

Probably not. But if you are going to own tech, own Microsoft.

While the run of stories on corporate responsibility is bad, let us not forget that this is America. Only in America can there be such widespread discussion of issues like this, whether the discussion takes place in the mass media, on talk radio and TV, or on the Web.

I enjoyed a comment I heard on the radio today very much. A caller challenged Congress to sign the federal budget with the same responsibilities for accountability that CEOs are expected to follow. Will Congressmen (and women) ever stop pointing fingers at "evil executives", or other scapegoats of the moment? The Democrats are returning to their roots as the "anti-business" party. Class warfare gets us--all of us--exactly nowhere!

I hope that some sort of reason takes hold and that the baby is not thrown out with the bath water; that is, that the stampede to "do something" about executive power run amok does not itself run amok. Many, many people in America have large personal stakes in the capital markets. Winning the 2002 elections through the long-term destruction of the investment class would be a pyrrhic victory indeed for the Democrats. What would the Social Security system--not to mention society at large--look like if every person entering retirement age truly depended upon it for 100% of his or her retirement income? I don't believe any Democrat wants that, not even those hypocrites who flew on corporate jets to get to fund raisers this weekend.

Give the SEC the headcount and budget it needs to vigorously uphold the laws that are on the books today. Change the law to make stock options an expense, if that is the right thing to do--after an informed debate. For God’s sake, stop demagoging the economy!

Do you remember the early days of the Bush administration? Back when the Democrats accused Republicans of talking down the economy? It turned out that we really were in a recession, and that a stimulus was required to help bring us out of it.

Now, it seems, Democrats are talking down the economy and the stock market. Investors are taking major hits. People who were looking forward to retiring are now looking at working for several years longer.
What are the motivations for this behavior?

I believe that the President, back in 2001, wanted to avoid a deep recession becoming the hallmark of his presidency, and acted quickly (with the support of both houses of Congress) to do what could be done by the government. The Fed acted in concert, perhaps concerned that the interest rate increases of 2000 were too much, too quickly, for the economy to take.

Now, the Fed is standing pat, having shot most of its bolts. Interest rates are more than low enough, if only businesspeople would borrow to make investments.

However, we are caught in the quarterly numbers trap. For many years, businesspeople have warned that business is becoming too beholden to next quarter’s profit and forecast data. Even mighty Microsoft has to beat the whisper numbers and year to year comparisons, no matter how much it invests in new initiatives that will, eventually, bring in more revenue and profit.

With this sort of scrutiny, coupled with terrorist jitters, corporate scandals that affect the most admired of companies (Enron, Fortune magazine’s poster child), and perhaps most nefariously, lack of pricing power, it is no wonder that the stock market averages are dropping like stones.

The Democrats, concerned only with winning, are not helping. They appear to have Republicans running away from good ideas like Social Security privatization. They appear to have a super majority forming in Congress that will pass any new corporate reporting/accounting regulatory bill that can be cobbled together--no matter the unintended consequences. Even John McCain now opposes stock options. How many political contributions were paid with those options in the "roaring '90s"?

Investor psychology is shot. I really wish my broker would have put me in Ginnie Mae issues back in March of 2001 when I asked him to. I’d be sleeping like a baby, earning about 7%.

As for what is next, I predict plenty of demagoguery, seasoned with overlarge helpings of attacks on President Bush’s Harken energy record. As to that, if you file the form saying you are going to sell stock, is it so critical to file the form saying that you sold the stock? I think the disclosure for most investors who pay attention has taken place. There's no there there--sorry Washington Post and New York Times.

I can hardly watch CNBC. I can remember watching it constantly back in 1998 and 1999. It was on a good portion of the time at the PRO Sports Club in Bellevue. All those Microsofties who worked out at the club had elaborate spreadsheets written in Excel, but really burned into their brain. I can still estimate the tax impact on a given level of income--like that!

Obviously, the late 1990s weren’t really about investing for a large number of people. To them, the stock market was a huge lottery that almost always paid you for playing. The coolest people flipped IPOs. Others bought the stocks of the day mentioned early on CNBC, then sold after lunch. Sadly, real investors tried to follow the buy and hold strategy that seemed to work for so long, and saw smaller returns than the gamblers. Still, do you know any day traders today?

It’s hard to see when the current negative psychology will turn. The business reporting in the 1970s and that of today seem eerily similar--there’s almost no good news, and what good news there is doesn’t matter.
I’m not an expert by any means, but I think that there are a few signs that could point to a turn-around--when and if these events occur are open questions:

• Coalition forces find the body of bin Laden and his top henchmen. Despite denials in the Arab world, the identities of the remains are established beyond a shadow of a doubt. I wonder what the market reaction to the discovery of Hitler’s body was back in 1945?

• The FBI, CIA and the agencies in the Department of Homeland Security (more on this below) stop the attack that Al Queda must be planning for the 9/11 anniversary.

• Accounting and brokerage/investment banking reforms are signed into law. Of course, the people in the agencies entrusted with the new powers must be competent and the agencies funded sufficiently to do the job.

• Some high profile cheats go to Attica, or some similar prison without a putting green.

• The Department of Homeland Security is formed. By the way, could that name be any lamer? How about calling it the United States Security Agency? Or the Department for the Protection of American Freedom? Homeland seems so Russian—they referred to their country as “the Motherland”. It's sad that one of the major impediments to the passage of legislation to create the agency is a provision that the President wants that would allow agency employees to be fired. Imagine, firing someone because they couldn't do their job. The union that represents government employees has made it all but impossible to get rid of incompetents, and it looks like they plan to oppose this provision "vigorously"

• The elections conclude this fall. I think that this cycle will surprisingly bitter and cynical, but the bitterest and most cynical may be surprised—at their losses. I believe that the public is weary of politics, and wants a government that really does work together for the common good without demagoguery.

Of course, people will feel better--at least for a couple of hours--when the next Tolkien installment comes out at the end of the year. The title has nothing to do with the WTC, as anyone who’s read the trilogy knows.

Why is it that people do not act with enlightened self interest foremost in their thoughts? Of course, the obvious retorts are, "Enlightened--from whose point of view? Enlightened--by whom (or what)?"

So much of history shows these mistakes in naked clarity. Economic and political issues are not settled in World War II, leaving openings for the rise of Fascism and Communism. Today, Arabs sit on vast oil resources with the potential to make the desert bloom, and raise their peoples to the forefront in industry, education, social advancement--all the aspirations of first world democracies. Millionaire professional baseball players and billionaire baseball owners squabble over largely economic issues, threatening each other with a work stoppage that might, just might, finally drive the long suffering fans away for good.

Why are these things so hard to see now, when action is possible, rather than afterwards?

If national fascism and Communism--in Europe--can be conquered, then concerted efforts can conquer religious and political differences in Ireland, in the Middle East, and in other hot spots around the globe. Recent reports of the size of Israel’s nuclear arsenal attributed to the USAF put the number of warheads at 400 or so. This is more than enough to make Mecca and Medina uninhabitable for 57 years or more--if anyone would want to visit a slag heap--with more than enough left over for most of the other Arab cities. The Arab birth rate shows a growing need for land, food, water and services in Arab territories that must be met. Otherwise, those basic needs will couple with religious fervor to pressure Israel and its supporters in the West mercilessly for concessions. Add to this the decline of the Israeli birth and Jewish immigration rates, and it can be seen where economic and political power will fall inevitably.

What of immigration in the developed nations of the world. Declining birthrates among the indigenous populations coupled with legal and illegal immigration changes the political, cultural and economic infrastructures of these countries. Will a future US be as willing to intercede in the Middle East, Asia or Europe as it might be in Central or South America? Will our need to spend on Social Security--the effort to privatize it having been effectively countered by the news of ten or so spectacular corporate frauds and the commensurate impact on stock prices overall--overwhelm all other aspects of government spending?

Will government remain a driver for technology research and innovation? Will we even have a space program for anything other than communications satellites? Will basic science lack a sponsor other than those interested in directed research rather than pure scientific inquiry?

What will the world of 2022 be like? Will our leaders continue to demagogue each other on petty concerns of the moment, or will it take wake up calls louder than 9/11 to awaken the populace that a new class of leader is required? Will the great New York Times continue to print stories that blame an administration for cutting spending on items like Superfund site clean up when in fact the spending on such programs has increased over past years, just not at the rate that special (Democratic) interests demand?

I hope that my wife’s grandchildren grow up in a world where leaders lead from principled thought on such issues rather than be led by polls and pollsters who hope to "win the week". I urge everyone to read a wide variety of news sources in order to be informed independently of political flacks and party hacks. Use the tools to understand the issues, and insist that candidates address them. And vote, in every election.

Information--and the capacity to understand it through education--are the best tools that citizens have to protect their rights from those on both sides who would curtail them. All business is not bad, not even big business. Without investment there would be no products, no housing, no utilities or services. Without regulation--enforcement of laws on the books today, for example--opportunists who exist during every age will run rampant. The trick is to strike a proper, fair balance, and to restore confidence that the system is operating in its own "Enlightened Self Interest".

I had hoped to make this a daily occurrence; a catharsis of sorts. I have not been as diligent as I planned to be, however.

In order to eliminate availability of a PC in every room of the house as an excuse, I am trying an experiment with this edition. I am writing this on my Pocket PC in Pocket Word. I will e-mail the final result to myself, and then copy the text into the site tomorrow. Eventually, I will buy an 802.11 card for the Pocket PC so that I can complete the entire process from the Pocket PC from start to finish.

The NASDAQ average is down again today. It is about where it was 5 years ago. At one point during its run-up that ended above 5,000, "investors" jumped from one "New Economy" trend to another. The Dot Coms--any Dot Com. Then Palm. Then phone software. Then cellular networks and telecommunications infrastructure. Then Linux. Then optical networking. Then the bottom fell out.

Ironically, the explosion of demand for 802.11-based wireless networks in recent years has not seen a run-up in associated stocks. The momentum players are played out; the battered individual investor no longer trusts an analyst's recommendation.

Still, we will see. Microsoft embraced wireless LAN technology in Windows XP. As component prices drop and security is strengthened, more and more networks will go in--at home and at work. People will buy cheap, heavy laptops that can be put away & out of sight at home, yet brought out to connect through broadband anywhere they are needed.

Tech stocks, anyone?

The second most dangerous thing in the entire world is a person under the influence of alcohol.

The most dangerous thing in the entire world is two people under the influence of alcohol.

Perhaps I exaggerate a bit. Still, it is impossible to carry on a rational conversation. No good decisions are made. Only regrets remain in the aftermath of lives damaged, if not destroyed.

As for myself, I hope to live my life free of alcohol starting now. It will be difficult in subtle ways; alcohol is a part of the social fabric of society. It is the one drug that is accepted, although its effects are well documented. Deaths due to accidents caused by drug drivers are but one statistic. How many marriages end due to the substance? How many lives--adult and child alike--are scarred?

I am pleased to see more and more restaurants voluntarily adopting a no smoking policy. That is the way it should be; government should not force the issue. If a restaurant wishes to cater to smokers, non-smokers are free to patronize other restaurants if they wish.

I'll go to restaurants that serve alcohol in the future. I'll be the one drinking water or at most, a diet soda.

All is right in Marinerville. Edgar returns to the lineup, strokes a homer and a two-run single. Edgar adds much needed pop to the team who’ve not scared many teams this season, especially in close games. Hopefully Edgar and other key members of the team who have been dinged up--Bret Boone, Mark McLemore and Jeff Nelson notable among them--will remain healthy. If Jeff Cirillo can continue hitting during the rest of the season as well as he did during inter-league play, we can look forward to the post season again and another shot at the D*&n Yankees.

Did you know that the judge who wrote the opinion on the Pledge of Allegiance ruling was appointed by President Nixon? That explains a great deal. He’s been on that particular bench since at least 1972. He is a "senior judge"--a sort of semi retired status that judges assume while their replacements are confirmed by the Senate. That is, if the Senate would vote on President Bush’s nominees for the many vacancies in Federal courts around the country.

If that’s not reason enough to vote Republican this Fall, I don’t know what is. Get Senator Patrick Leahy of the People’s Republic of Vermont out of the chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee and let sanity return to the process of confirming judicial appointees. Also, I hope that the people "represented" by those who voted against the House of Representative's resolution in support of the Pledge of Allegiance throw the bums out when they next come up for re-election.

And let's prevent this senior judge from inflicting any more "senior moments" on the people of the United States of America.

In case you need it, here is the Pledge of Allegiance in its entirety:

I pledge allegiance to the flag of the United States of America, and to the Republic for which it stands, one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

It boggles the mind that a US Federal Court ruled the Pledge of Allegiance to the United States unconstitutional today. This would have to go down as the penultimate moment, the "high tide" of Political Correctness in America.

For some years now, the majority of Americans have been assailed by "incrementalism". That is, small assaults on traditions and practices of the mainstream that are couched by the PC crowd as harmful to the sensitivities of minorities, whether those minorities be racial, political, disabled, or even "people of size". I certainly do not advocate racism, or prejudicial behavior against individuals because of the group that they ostensibly belong to. However, it makes no sense for the sensitivities of a few to be used against the practices of the majority in cases where it is perfectly acceptable for the minority to "opt out".

No one forces school children to repeat the Pledge in whole or in part. That alone should have been enough for the court to dismiss the case.

What next? Will the Chaplains in Congress, the military and other governmental offices be dismissed? Will the word God be struck from public buildings and our currency? Will the Supreme Court no longer invoke God’s name before its sessions begin? Will the President no longer swear an oath on a Bible repeated by the Chief Justice?

I believe that the public outcry over this travesty will compel the Justice Department to appeal the ruling, where it will be overturned without delay. The judges should be ashamed of themselves, and the person who filed the suit originally should find productive work peeling vegetables or filling potholes so that he does not have time to file such silly actions and waste the public’s time and money.

Wa-hoo! We accomplished quite a bit today. My wife and I hung pictures and cleared out 12 boxes of DVDs, CDs, and equipment from an area upstairs we--I--had let go too long. We are close to finishing up our move-in--only 6 months after the fact.

Thank you, Mark Cuban. I watched the Mariners beat Houston today on HDNet. What a picture! If you are thinking of getting HDTV, HBO HD and HDNet are awesome on DirecTV.

Unfortunately, our home is blocked from direct line of sight of Seattle's TV antennas by several land formations. I had an expert out to test for HDTV signal strength to determine whether an antenna would work; unfortunately, the answer was no.

Therefore, I hope that the merger between Dish Network and DirecTV goes through. I hope that the FCC will mandate that they carry all available HDTV channels as part of their effort to move HDTV forward. I do not believe that consumers will suffer; cable has the lion's share of the TV transmission market.

If you do not have HDTV, get it. And write your representative to tell them to support the merger and support the roll-out of HDTV nationwide.

Within the next week, we will finally clear up most if not all of the remaining move-in items in our new home. We have been too busy to hang our pictures, and too entertained to worry much about putting away CDs, photos and the like. We have a hard deadline next Saturday night; we expect to be ready well before then.

I am typing this on Kathy’s rebuilt laptop. Finally, I think that it’s done. Now, on to the desktop upstairs!

The dogs definitely prefer air conditioning, even though the thermometer barely touches the high seventies. They wouldn’t last long in Georgia, where I grew up. Our high here is equivalent to the "cool of the morning" there. They are pretty good dogs, even if they are wimps. The tile floor should be as cool as the underside of the pillow for them.

Hurray! After a 2 1/2 hour drive trying to avoid delays due to accidents, I finally arrived home where my beautiful wife had burgers ready for grilling and beers ready for drinking. Refreshed after my long drive, I tackled her laptop with a vengeance. After a brief battle, it yielded--it is ours! It is with this machine that I write this.

The only hitch in the giddy up, as my Dad would say, was Microsoft's product activation process for Microsoft Office. I have 5 copies of Office for 4 computers. There should be no issue as to my having a proper license for the copy I installed on her laptop. I was not able to activate the copy of Office Professional on this machine until I called Microsoft. A very nice young woman helped me finish the procedure, whereupon Office's activation wizard has hopefully been laid to its final resting place.

My wife asks all too often, "What do people do if they don’t have you to help them" when speaking of computer problems. I am sure that it is frustrating. I understand Microsoft's position in this case, however. A few years ago during a meeting at Microsoft, a speaker said that Microsoft's revenues would have been one billion dollars greater if not for software piracy. I am sure that crime and the losses it generates have only increased over time.

Do not steal. Pay for the things you use. But for goodness sake, companies who make products should make them work so that you don’t feel like a crook just for using them.

I have been working on my wife’s laptop. I spent much of last night--until England lost to Brazil somewhere close to 2 AM--and part of the morning essentially rebuilding the laptop. I am close to having it back where it was. The hoped-for improvement is the addition of access to my wife's company's VPN network. The VPN client is installed; my wife will have to attempt to log on this weekend to verify my success or failure.

All of this due to the Cisco VPN client’s peculiar insistence that it live on a disk partition labeled C. Virtually all of the other software on the machine worked fine on the D partition. Now that my wife's company has given warning that her present company-owned laptop must be returned soon, I sacrificed sleep so that she could work from home using our wireless LAN from anywhere in our home, including the couch.

Now I ask you, is that love or what? ;-)

I don't know if I am sad or not about the end of the US run in soccer. I managed to miss the soccer craze that has afflicted so many American parents and their children. Still, I think that some overseas pundits were worried by the prospect of US domination of the world in their cherished sport--fun stuff for an unabashed American like me. So many countries--large and small--seem to see the success or failure of their soccer teams as an expression of national prowess. What would they think if the US began kicking their butts in their beloved sport during every World Cup? Would they retreat to Cricket? Take up Caber Tossing?

Imagine all the anti-American screeds that would be written and protests that would occur if we took the World Cup home someday? I say to all the Soccer Moms and Dads out there, "Press on! Damn the traffic! Ask not what your country can do about the roads, ask how many kids can you get into your local Soccer program for your country's future. Our nation cries out for its Manifest Destiny! All other fields have been conquered; it is the Soccer pitch or nothing!"

Traffic! Transit?

The Puget Sound regional transit authority--"Sound Transit"--suffered a setback when the city of Tukwila voted against a proposed rail system issue. The city's decision was based upon the fact that the trains would not stop near Tukwila’s South Center Mall, the city’s main source of taxable income.

That should not have come as a surprise to anyone. Why would the city take a decision that could have had an adverse impact upon its source of revenue? Why would the city take a chance on the mall becoming a ghost town?

In hindsight, this all seems obvious. Sound Transit has a history of flubbed decisions, delays, and waste of public money. This setback threatens to add even more costs for “negotiations” with Tukwila, redesign, and delays.

All for a system that may never achieve levels of use that alleviate our transit problems, and keep businesses in the region—and taxpayers employed.

The answer continues to be obvious. Those who have jobs drive cars or take buses--today. Their commutes are long because roads are not wide enough, drivers are not trained to drive on freeways well enough, and companies do not offer flextime or telecommuting for a few days a week to alleviate congestion, parking issues, and the like. Why not lead the region to a "sound" decision by proposing work on these issues instead of building a white elephant that will not help Boeing ship a single fuselage from Renton to Everett?

The clock is ticking.