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Virtual Editorial Board
Join our virtual editorial board by sharing your thoughts today on issues we plan to write about for tomorrow's newspaper.
Weekend VEB: Mother's Day, Unfit troops and Water
Welcome to the VEB, weekend edition.
Previous virtual editorial boards
· Racial divides, City Council ethics and Seattle schools. Reader comments: Vet suicides and bike safety (5/8/2008)
· *Afternoon Snark; Seattle jails and veteran suicides, plus reader comments on streetcars and gas prices (5/7/2008)
· *Afternoon Snark: horses and steroids* Street, cell phone signs and Burma. Comments: War spending, Arabic language (5/6/2008)
· Snark: Gas Rebates; Horse racing ethics and Iraq as a resort; Reader comments, Rebate checks, Sound Transit (5/5/2008)
· Weekend edition: Sound Transit, Rebates and Reader comments, Horsey, torture and Mission Accomplished (5/2/2008)
D. Parvaz
Where to spend the rebate? Don't. Just give it away
Cathy SorboJoel Connelly
· Right-wing defector to make stop in Seattle
more columns
Robert L. Jamieson Jr.
· Reaching out in Myanmar's hour of needmore columns
Mary Swift
· Seed planted for adopting special-needs childmore columns
Opinion Leaders
Our editorial board interviews key newsmakers.
Seattle City Council: No-bid concerns
P-I Editorial: Hearing that a City Council member is being slapped with an ethics violation is always bad news. At worst, it reveals a culture of cronyism and corruption. At best, it highlights a reckless disregard for even the appearance of propriety.
Seattle Schools: Laser-like focus
P-I Editorial: It's important that a foundation for Seattle Public Schools includes a few well-defined, ambitious but achievable goals. It's clear that improving academic performance for students is at the top of the list of goals.
Pat Buchanan: Where's the what?
P-I Editorial: Pat Buchanan in his treatise on cluelessness, "A Brief for Whitey," asks African Americans: "Where is the gratitude?" Say what? It's not worth an answer.
People can handle the truth about war
Helen Thomas: Why have the media shied away from telling the story about Iraqi civilian casualties? News people and editors were more courageous during the Vietnam War. What are they afraid of now?
Civilized society doesn't abuse animals
Bonnie Erbe: If you, as I, cannot get that horrific image of Eight Belles being put to death at Churchill Downs last weekend out of your head, you can take action to help quell the horror.
Early years with child not an indulgence
Susan Kolker Finkel: We have been pretending for the past four decades that the early years with a child is an indulgence for a woman, instead of a right for her and her child. As in such cases of poor policy and willing deception, society is the loser.
A better way to elect a president
Scot Lehigh: An outdated arrangement shouldn't govern something as important as presidential elections. It's time we graduated from the Electoral College. This is an idea both Democrats and Republicans should get behind.
Billion-dollar babies: The new global ruling class
The rise of nation states produced national ruling classes. It would be odd if the current integration of the world economy did not produce new global elites.
U.S. wages war on journalists
Amy Goodman: Sami al-Haj is a free man today, after having been imprisoned by the U.S. military for more than six years. His crime: journalism.
Clinton's too-long goodbye
Nicholas D. Kristof: One of the reasons that Clinton is resolved to keep fighting is, I think, a resentment that she and many of her followers feel over sexism in the campaign. On that issue, she has a point.
Obama must run the Rev off the stage
If Barack Obama can again prove there are more Americans who do not fear others than there are who do, he will have made a monumental contribution whether or not he becomes president this time around.
The democratic recession
Thomas L. Friedman: The less well-known recession is called "the democratic recession," and if it isn't reversed, it will change the world for a long time.
It's too soon for Hillary Clinton to quit
The most important reason to cease pressuring Clinton to quit is that the media and the blogosphere, delighting in their sportive shredding of Gore's electoral chances in 2000, helped pave the way for the current disastrous administration.
The adviser who won't let Clinton give up
Harold Ickes runs Hillary Clinton's war room from the third floor of her headquarters across the Potomac from the capital where campaign staff are fighting a losing battle to persuade Democratic superdelegates to come to over to her side.
Time for Democrats to rally around Obama
Hillary Clinton, whose fighting spirit has been one of her greatest assets through this protracted campaign, would be wise to call it a day.
The recurring case of Clinton fatigue
Hillary Clinton was the candidate who could down a beer and a shot, while Barack Obama was tagged as an elitist. But Clinton's transformation to woman of the people was not enough to overcome her weaknesses and Obama's strengths.
The political quagmire
Clinton is savvy enough to realize that if ever she is to have a repeat chance at the White House, she must at least convince Obama supporters without going overboard that her fealty to his candidacy is not just lip service.
The torch en route
The Olympic torch came to mind Tuesday night as the Democratic primary election returns came rolling in. Has anyone else noticed how much the presidential campaign and the Olympics are starting to resemble one another?
THURSDAY, MAY 8, 2008
Returning Vets: Shh! Don't worry
P-I Editorial: The head of the Department of Veterans Affairs plans to keep Ira Katz on as mental health director. Katz tried to keep the alarming rate of veteran suicides quiet with a "Shh!" e-mail sent to staff. Few think this makes sense during war.
Local Jails: Ask key questions
P-I Editorial: Without enough cells, those accused and convicted of minor crimes can't be held in jail. Population growth makes that an unavoidable reality for Seattle, even when jail alternatives, reforms and efficiencies are taken into account.
'Never again' likely to happen again
Bridget Johnson: Sad to say, as we marked this year's Holocaust Remembrance Day, "never again" seems further from reach than ever. Jews continue to be targeted, be it in the 1994 bombing of the Jewish center in Buenos Aires or the repeated desecration of Jewish graves in Berlin.
Case implicates free speech
Nick Schwellenbach: The King County Prosecutor's Office is pursuing a criminal case against a former Boeing employee with dangerous implications for whistle-blowers, the flying public and free speech rights.
Make roads safer for bicyclists
Brian Dirks: Cyclists want you to spot them. They share a love of the road, great Washington scenery, cheery camaraderie, a zeal for a healthy environment and good personal health.
Beauty comes from humans and herons
Susanne Kromberg: In the Magnolia neighborhood, we have the opportunity to offer affordable housing to men, women and children who have been homeless or are at risk of being homeless. At the same time, we have the beauty of Discovery Park and an opportunity to return more of the park to its natural state.
At 60, Israel remains true to its mission
H.D.S. Greenway: Through all the aches and pains of being 60, Israel has remained true to its original mission, the ingathering of Jews. More than a million Russians have been absorbed, and the state struggles to integrate more than 100,000 Ethiopians.
Obama, Clinton need to do some gas rationing of their own
Derrick Z. Jackson: The arguing between Obama and Clinton over the inane gas-tax holiday is more telling for what is not said than whether Obama is elitist for snubbing it or whether Clinton is a pander bear for supporting it. Both are still cubs nursing in big oil's den.
Internal affairs
Adrian Walker: Honestly, it's hard to imagine that anyone, even Oprah, cares much about an affair from the disco era. But it would be a shame if that were the lasting image of Ed Brooke. He was a great reformer in Massachusetts politics, in ways no one would have imagined when he started out.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 7, 2008
Transportation: Take the next car
P-I Editorial: Connecting dense areas such as Fremont or Ballard to downtown Seattle and the Central District is vital to solving the transportation puzzle, moving the maximum number of people in the most efficient (fiscal, environmental and temporal) way.
Technology & The Law: Secure talkers?
P-I Editorial: Lawmakers need to gather facts not only from law enforcement officials, but from privacy-rights advocates and come up with a set of laws that balance both concerns when it comes to searching for individual cell phone signals.
Cyclone Tragedy: Sounding alarms
P-I Editorial: In Burma, the world's first task is helping with recovery. But then there should be a chance
Media distracted as the war rages on
Joan Vennochi: Iraq isn't getting the prominent play of other news topics. The latest statistics from the Project for Excellence in Journalism back up the conclusion that coverage of the Iraq war is on the decline.
Rites of passage call for huge celebrations
Ruth Marcus: My family knew I was losing it when I started growing grass.
Next crisis is sure to be worse
Paul Krugman: It's possible that the worst of the financial crisis is over. The bad news is that as markets stabilize, chances for fundamental financial reform may be slipping away. As a result, the next crisis will probably be worse than this one.
Reinvigorating GI bill is win-win
Bob Herbert: At the top of the list of no-brainers in Washington should be Sen. Jim Webb's proposed expansion of education benefits for the men and women who have served in the armed forces since Sept. 11, 2001.
Violent video games reflect what kids see
Charles A. Kerr II: Regarding the violent video game, isn't the suggestion "Don't buy it and production will slow down" obvious? Perhaps, never entirely stop, but the flood will tend to dry up. Responsibility has to commence somewhere.
Democratic presidential styles are combat and composure
David Brooks: Obama's and Clinton's basic worldviews would shape their presidencies. He is a conversationalist and community-mobilizer. If elected, she'll have the power to take the Hobbesian struggle she perceives and turn it into remorseless reality.
Here are ways you can cut gasoline consumption
Harry Rosenfeld: The driving public can look to the false hopes of tax reductions that never will pass Congress in any event. Or drivers can exercise self-control and take measures within their power, given the will to do so.
Laughing out loud, or not
John Kelso: My main problem with LOL? I think you LOL people are a pack of liars. Did you ever stop to wonder what percentage of the people who write "LOL" in a message are really laughing out loud?
Roller coaster year of political thrills and spills
Ann McFeatters: Clearly, the bloom is off all three roses at the moment. But McCain is holding his own, despite the clear anger against Republicans nationwide, for three reasons.
Beware of Chinese nationalism
The Economist: The sight of thousands of Chinese waving xenophobic fists suggests that a country on its way to becoming a superpower may be a more dangerous force than optimists had hoped. But it isn't just foreigners who should be worried by these scenes.
TUESDAY, MAY 6, 2008
Kentucky Derby: Troubled finish
P-I Editorial: The Kentucky Derby's traditions include hats, mint juleps and a rose garland for the winning horse. But the catastrophic injury to the second-place horse on Saturday wasn't a complete surprise.
Measles: Prompt warnings
P-I Editorial: When it comes to health, prevention is often the key. In the case of measles, prevention is easy, readily available and dangerous to others to neglect.
Iraq War: Imagine luxury
P-I Editorial: The Associated Press reports about a "zone of influence" around our mega-embassy in Baghdad. Imagine luxury hotels, a shopping center and even condos in the heart of Baghdad. U.S. policy at work.
Who will tell the people the truth?
Thomas L. Friedman: My own totally unscientific polling has left me feeling that if there is one overwhelming hunger in our country today it's this: People want to do nation building. They really do. But they want to do nation building in America.
State shows no respect for special-ed
Wayne Grytting, guest columnist: There are several thousand students with Down syndrome, cerebral palsy or other developmental disabilities in King County. Many will never progress beyond first-grade reading or math. Now the state of Washington will be stripping many of them of the simple dignity of graduating with a diploma.
Mercer Street project not top priority
John V. Fox, guest columnist: Two years ago Seattle voters approved a $365 million transportation levy, "Bridging the Gap" (BTG). Together with commercial parking and employee taxes, a total of $544 million was promised for a backlog of neighborhood needs -- repairing ailing bridges, repaving streets and addressing sidewalk, bike and pedestrian concerns.
Eastside rail & trail a great plan
Douglas Engle, guest columnist: We're very disappointed that guest columnist Anthony Cresci has resorted to an argumentum ad hominem attack on GNP Railway founder Tom Payne (Thursday).
The all-white elephant in the room
Frank Rich: If we're to judge black candidates on their most controversial associates -- and how quickly, sternly and completely they disown them -- we must judge white politicians by the same yardstick.
This Bud's for you
Maureen Dowd: It's hard not to be who you are, but it's doubly hard to be who you've strived not to be. Obama not only has to figure out how to unwind with a Bud. He has to rewind his life.
The transformative president
George Will: Now is a time to ponder the transformation Harry Truman wrought in the presidency and the Constitution, and why that transformation should be debated before the next president is selected.
A prison of shame, and it's ours
Nicholas D. Kristof: Reliable information is still scarce about Guantanamo, but increasingly we're gaining glimpses of life there -- and they are painful to read.
McCain-Jindal?
William Kristol: No fewer than four McCain staffers and advisers have mentioned as a possible vice-presidential pick the 36-year-old Louisiana governor, Bobby Jindal. They're tempted by the idea of picking someone so young, with real accomplishments.
MONDAY, MAY 5, 2008
Higher Education: A call for renewal
P-I Editorial: For all their posturing about the economy, the presidential candidates are telling the American public very little about how they would re-energize our most important economic engine. Higher education has been easy to overlook.
Nation's Priorities: Feeding the war
P-I Editorial: While we're pleased that President Bush has pledged $770 million for world food aid (hmm, perhaps we really do
We need Arabic language programming
William Scott: Arabic language programming should be readily available to us in the United States.
SUNDAY, MAY 4, 2008
Open door for Sound Transit
P-I Editorial: As fed up as the region is with traffic, most couldn't swallow the $47 billion package that also included more roads. The question now, what's next?
Candidates ignore the states
Paul L. Posner, guest columnist: The three presidential campaigns are sounding entirely D.C.-centric, even though many of the bold campaign promises about health care, global warming, or homeland security and immigration stand on the shoulders of states and localities.
An incontrovertible right to exist
David Drumer, guest columnist:As Israel celebrates its 60th birthday, a chorus of defamers sees the modern incarnation of the Jewish people in their homeland as a historic injustice.
Israel built over the ruins of its crimes against Palestine
Johann Hari, guest columnist: When you hit your 60th birthday, most of you will guzzle a glass of champagne and wonder if you have become everything you dreamed of in your youth. Soon, the state of Israel is going to have that hangover.
Bill Clinton may be campaign's biggest loser
Albert R. Hunt, guest columnist: A President Obama would drive Bill Clinton crazy. If not irrelevant, it would make Clinton a secondary figure within his own country and party.
Obama finds two Wrights make a wrong
Margaret Carlson, syndicated columnist: However inadvertently, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright may have saved Barack Obama, if not for all eternity, at least for now. Maybe Obama can get the discussion back to what he believes in instead of what his former pastor does. Amen to that.
Obama-Clinton battle will haunt party's nominee
Kevin Hassett, guest columnist: The fact that the substance of Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama is so close may be either a plus or a minus for the eventual nominee come the November election.
Be sure to thank the next generation
Scot Lehigh, syndicated columnist: Tax rebates from Uncle Sam started, and I say it's about damn time. But for my money, this shouldn't happen just when the economy gets soft. It's the kind of thing we should expect every year.
Sunday Shorts
Sunday short subjects from the P-I Editorial Board.
SATURDAY, MAY 3, 2008
The cognitive age
David Brooks: There's a problem with the way the globalization paradigm has evolved. It doesn't really explain most of what is happening in the world.
Party of denial
Paul Krugman: Obama is doing much more harm to the Democrats by echoing GOP attack lines on such issues as insurance mandates and Social Security. Nowf he's demonstrating his post-partisanship by giving Republicans credit for good ideas they never had.
The problem with parents
The problem is that too often as parents yes, I'm sorry to say, this one included, we want the easy way out. And that means allowing our kids to "feel" good, without going further and doing the hard work of training them to "do" good.
FRIDAY, MAY 2, 2008
Living Food: Smarter shopping
P-I Editorial: As pump prices rise, questions about how people shop for groceries will increase. But for working-class and poorer neighborhoods, convenient access to healthy foods is an old concern. There are options if communities work together.
Reality Check: Sound progression
P-I Editorial: Community leaders got together to talk about the region's future. It was called "Reality Check," and it got down to real local challenges: transportation, a green environment and affordable housing. Needed: progress to match vision.
Mission Accomplished: A political farce
P-I Editorial: The American public doesn't suffer from the White House's brand of amnesia about "Mission Accomplished." Nonetheless, the White House's Dana Perino said: "We have certainly paid a price for not being more specific on that banner."
Media complicit in making Wright look bad
Kenneth F. Bunting: The country and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright would have been better off had he realized that often less is better. The past weekend's attention-grabbing media flurry is one example.
Ticker tape still ain't spaghetti
Amy Goodman: Behind the hunger, behind the riots, are so-called free-trade agreements, and the brutal emergency-loan agreements imposed on poor countries by financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund.
Bush admits he approved torture
Helen Thomas: What is startling is that George W. Bush feels no remorse about the cruel image he has created for America -- and the damage done to its credibility and probity.
Listen to the other side of Tibet issue
Dori Jones Yang: What I am finding is that Chinese people -- not the government propaganda machine but flesh-and-blood people -- are angry and hurt at the world's increasingly negative portrayal of their beloved country
Also-rans think it's all about them
The subject is the damage egoistic men can do to a political campaign belonging to somebody else (think Bill Clinton, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright).
With friends like Wright, Obama has no need for enemies
Rowland Nethaway: Barack Obama should disown Jeremiah Wright completely and renew his message of unity. Someday we should hope that chants of "race doesn't matter" will actually be true.
Four eyes for fashion still say dork
Dale McFeatters: Purely decorative glasses are now showing up on the fashion runways, always a bad sign. Dorothy Parker observed, "Men seldom make passes at girls who wear glasses," but female models apparently don't have that problem.
New doubts about Obama's judgment
Dan K. Thomasson: Americans can be generous in their refusal to blame someone for the remarks of another, but associations also can be revealing, particularly in the area of judgment. The fact that so very little is known about Obama has added to his problem.
Shut up, Reverend Wright
The Economist: Wright belongs to a generation of activists -- like Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton -- who thrived in part by playing to the resentments of black supporters. Obama wants to get beyond racial polarization and enter the political mainstream.
The make-or-break Hoosier primary
The Economist: Obama might have an easier time in Indiana if he were still the underdog, a role Clinton has firmly claimed. Whether Indianans see enough of themselves, and that resilience, in Clinton will determine how much longer she goes on.
Women a huge casualty of Iraq war
Joan Bakewell: The hideous treatment of women under the Taliban in Afghanistan is now spilling over into Iran and Iraq. Oppression, abuse, violence and degradation are on the increase. Women there are being driven back to ancient and punitive ways of life.
Bush betrays humanitarian pledge by going to Beijing Olympics
Jonathan Gurwitz: Going to China and contributing to the communist spectacle without any cooperation on Darfur or amelioration in other troubling areas? No, Mr. President. Not on your watch.
THURSDAY, MAY 1, 2008
Wild Sky: Preserving a future
P-I Editorial: A congressional bill creating the Wild Sky Wilderness Area is finally heading to President Bush's desk for a signature. The expansion of wilderness protection is a signal achievement that ought to point toward more preservation.
The economy: Details are ugly
Please, remind us again, what was the good news in the Gross Domestic Product report? As economist Nouriel Roubini wrote on his blog, "The details are ugly and confirm that we are in a recession."
Army barracks: Surviving at home
P-I Editorial: Edward Frawley hoped to pressure lawmakers and the army to build barracks at Ft. Bragg. And then came the phone calls and statements that the army will investigate barracks worldwide. It's not the way to reward soldiers for service.
Eastside train a bad proposal
Let's return to the original and beautiful concept of a hiking and biking trail similar to the Burke-Gilman and Sammamish trails. It is a great opportunity for the Port of Seattle and King County to hand down a wonderful legacy for future generations.
Caregiver standards: More doesn't always mean better
An April 23 guest column, "More training for long-term care workers," suggests we need to pass an initiative, such as I-1029, to require higher caregiver training standards. That's unnecessary and wasteful of millions of taxpayer dollars.
National health insurance best way to ensure care for all Americans
The need for meaningful health care reform is a hot topic as the national election approaches. An important study reveals a growing consensus among physicians that our system would be best fixed by legislation for national health insurance.
More to 1968 than hippies and festivals
Mark Steel: Clearly something big and exciting was happening in 1968, yet the most common appraisal of the time now is to dismiss it as a frivolous episode involving a few hippies and students.
No more cheap oil -- ever
Hamish McRae: Oil is expensive enough now to start forcing conservation, and as a result of the impact it is having on food prices, it is not something that supports social stability or human decency.
Wright time for Obama to drop out
Sen. Barack Obama's response to Rev. Jeremiah Wright's incendiary appearance on Monday at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., is not just a day late and a dollar short: It's a month-and-a-half late and a few million dollars short.
Your opinion
What do other readers think? See results of recent polls in P-I editorials.
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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.
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.
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