Category Archives: Silverdale

Pulling out the Nazi card in Silverdale on the background checks initiative

Horses Ass, the political website for Washington lefties, has audio of a speech delivered Aug. 23 at a “No on I-594” event in Silverdale that has supporters of the measure outraged.

During his speech (the audio is below.) Brian Judy, A Washington NRA official, criticized one of the measure’s financial backers ($385,000), Nick Hanauer. The initiative, if passed, would require background checks for gun sales at gun shows and for those online. It allows for some exceptions.

Judy draws his criticism from a piece Hanauer wrote in Politico arguing that America needs to raise the wages of lower and middle class Americans, that the working class is what creates rich people, not the other way around. The following section reflects much of Hanauer’s main argument.

… the problem isn’t that we have inequality. Some inequality is intrinsic to any high-functioning capitalist economy. The problem is that inequality is at historically high levels and getting worse every day. Our country is rapidly becoming less a capitalist society and more a feudal society. Unless our policies change dramatically, the middle class will disappear, and we will be back to late 18th-century France. Before the revolution.
And so I have a message for my fellow filthy rich, for all of us who live in our gated bubble worlds: Wake up, people. It won’t last.
If we don’t do something to fix the glaring inequities in this economy, the pitchforks are going to come for us.

Judy makes the case that rich people like Hanauer want to take our guns so that poor people will only have pitchforks when they do rise up. They won’t have guns, because Hanauer wants them taken away, apparently.

And then Judy expresses astonishment that any Jewish person could believe that:

And in one of the last paragraphs he talks about his family being run out of Germany by the Nazis. It’s like, How stupid can they, you know? So he’s funding, he’s put a half a million dollars, toward this policy, the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis. You know, it’s staggering to me, it’s just, you can’t make this stuff up. That these people, its like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun, I think, “Are you serious? Did you not remember what happened? And why did that happen? Because they registered guns and then they took them. And now you’re supporting gun con, you come to this country and you support gun control? Why did you have to flee to this country in the first place? Hello! Is anybody home here?” Yeah, it’s just, I don’t know.

Cheryl Stumbo, a victim of the 2006 Jewish Federation shooting in Seattle, is a sponsor of Initiative 594 and issued this statement:

“The offensive rhetoric from a senior lobbyist at the National Rifle Association is out-of-touch with what the vast majority of Washingtonians want: a reasonable, productive discussion of solutions to reduce gun violence in our communities. Developing those solutions has been a major part of my life since the attack on my co-workers and me eight years ago, and I am honored to have been joined by other survivors of gun violence, gun owners, hunters, law enforcement, and current and former NRA members. We’ve come together because Washington state needs everyone working together to be part of the solution to making our communities safer – and fringe ideas like Mr. Judy’s are part of the problem.”

The Jewish Federation of Seattle issued a statement, too, part of which said:

“Eight years ago today, the Jewish Federation was the target of a violent attack by an individual harboring dangerous falsehoods about Jews – falsehoods that continue to exist on the fringes of our society. It is deeply offensive for anyone to suggest that Jewish supporters of gun violence prevention have ‘forgotten’ the history of our people. For a representative of the National Rifle Association, or any organization, to repeat the out-of-touch falsehood linking gun violence prevention to Nazi Germany and the Holocaust is not only an ignorant distortion but is exceedingly dangerous.”

This is known in technical terms as “Reductio ad Hitlerum” or “Argumentum ad Nazium.” You can read more about that by going to http://www.fallacyfiles.org/adnazium.html.

The audio of Judy’s comment follows:

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Open office hours with Commissioner Josh Brown

brynn grimley

Brynn writes:

Commissioner Josh Brown will be at the Silverdale Library tomorrow from 3 to 5 p.m. to meet with constituents and talk with them about whatever they want to talk about.

This is something he’s been doing for more than a year, but it sounds like not too many people know about it, so the library is trying to raise awareness in hopes that more people will show up to talk with the commissioner. Here’s the details from the library’s event calendar:

Central Kitsap County Commissioner Josh Brown will be at the Silverdale Library every fourth Tuesday of the month for “Open Office Hours,” to meet with citizens to listen to their ideas and concerns. “Open Office Hours” are open to all residents and will run from 3:00-5:00pm in the Hess Room of the Silverdale Library located at 3450 NW Carlton St in Old Town Silverdale. No appointment is necessary. Visitors will be welcomed on a first-come basis and will have up to 10 minutes each to talk to Commissioner Brown about any topic related to county government.

Since he just returned from the Paris Airshow, if you go ask Josh how the City of Light was in the spring.

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Office hours with Josh Brown

brynn grimley

Brynn writes:

I received information about an open house that will be held Tuesday in a newsletter released by Commissioner Josh Brown’s office. Those interested in meeting with Brown are welcome to attend his “Open Office Hours” Jan. 24 from 1 to 3 p.m. at the Silverdale Library, 3450 NW Carlton Street in Old Town Silverdale.

According to a blurb from Brown’s office, he’ll make himself available to meet with citizens to hear their concerns and ideas and to talk with them about topics related to county government. He’ll be in the Hess meeting room of the library. People can just drop by, no appointment is necessary.

For more information, call 360-337-7080.

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Silverdale incorporation…almost there

brynn grimley

Brynn writes:

In Saturday’s Kitsap Sun I reported that the Citizens United for Silverdale planned to submit their letter of intent to incorporate Silverdale Monday or Tuesday of this week.

It now sounds like the group is taking a little longer to get the letter submitted. Group members assure me the letter is written and notarized, it’s just the legal description that’s taking a little longer to complete.

Committee member Marcus Hoffman said Friday afternoon that the group was “still getting our legal description worked out.” Once the description meets the group’s satisfaction, they’ll be ready to submit it along with the notarized letter. Hoffman couldn’t say when that might be, other than “it will be soon.”

The group has made a point of having all their ducks in a row, for lack of a better cliche, before submitting the letter of intent to the county. That’s because once the county accepts receipt of the group’s intent to incorporate, the clock starts ticking. They’ve got 30 days to go before the Boundary Review Board and show how they envision the future city of Silverdale, including form of government and boundaries.

Once the review board dose its thing — including hearing from the public — the citizen group can decide if it wants to continue with the effort based on any changes the board may require. From there the county auditor gives the group information regarding the number of registered voters within the proposed boundaries, and the group then has 180 days to gather at least 10 percent of those signatures.

I also wanted to note that I saw many of the comments asking about the tax base of the new city and what the impact would be to the county if it lost Silverdale’s sales taxes. These are all questions that will be answered at the March 29 meeting hosted by the Citizens United for Silverdale group. The meeting is at 7 p.m. at the Central Kitsap Fire and Rescue Station 51 along Silverdale Way (next to the post office). I’ll be reporting from that meeting and will do my best to sum up people’s concerns and find answers.

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Planning For Future Park Use

brynn grimley

Brynn Grimley writes:

Monday night the board of county commissioners were set to approve the Newberry Hill Heritage Park master plan. I wrote about the plan back in April when the committee finished its work on the document. The committee (made up of anyone who wanted to be involved and have a say) met five times and created a plan for how it would like to see the park developed in the future. An appointed steering committee then reviewed the committee’s suggestions to make sure they were in line with the larger guiding principles established by the group.

Initially there was a lot of interest in the park — both during the county’s swap with the Department of Natural Resources to get the land and at the first public master plan meeting. But by the end, while a number of people stayed involved in the planning process, the overall public interest in the project seemed to have subsided.

One reason could be because once people realized the idea was to keep the uses of the park “passive” (i.e. walking, biking, horse trails, no ball fields, no motorized vehicles, etc.), they didn’t feel the need to voice concerns.

I didn’t attend Monday’s commissioner meeting, so I’m not sure what if any testimony will be given regarding the park plan. I’m assuming the plan will pass, but I’ve learned in this business it’s never safe to assume. So I’ll update this Tuesday after I come into work if anything changes.

While there isn’t much to update on the park planning front, I did learn that the county is close to acquiring the remaining 315 acres it needs to complete the park and make it 1,082 acres. The county acquired 247 acres in the north end of the park in 2004. It then got the 520 acres to the south from DNR in 2009, but still needed the land in the middle of those to parcels to complete its park.

The state said it’d gladly convey the land to the county, but asked the county to foot the bill of that process because it didn’t foresee having the financing needed to pay for its staff time to complete the work. The county set aside $15,000 to help pay for that process. It sounds like the county spent closer to $10,000, and the land conveyance has been approved by the county and state.

Now it’s slowly making its way through the process of getting the various signatures it needs to be final, according to county Parks and Recreation Director Jim Dunwiddie. Originally the county hoped to have the acquisition done by June, but as we head closer to July, it’s now sounding like it will be finalized closer to September.

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