Apparently, Larson hopes to quickly get hitched with Whatcom county's premier "land use consultant" (no, not Jack, it's a fact!, Petree) so some of the gravy, grease, graft, or whatever euphemism this current crowd of crooks has adopted, will trickle down to his feeble publishing business, sort of like the fees roll into Sam's little shop of favors.
If Larson's elected, expect a rise in advertising revenues at his Northwest Business Monthly. Coming soon, a glossy new real estate section!
Think I'm joking? One developer makes a measly $800 contribution to the Larson campaign and, kabing!, NW-BM has a glowing story on how he's saving Whatcom county, starting with Blaine, by bending over one small town at a time.
Larson laments, "imposing costly regulations on businesses and productive individuals. Instead, officials should re-examine their priorities and be prepared to make some tough choices."
To wit, Blaine was conned into dropping their impact fees ordinarily required of developers to defray at least part of the costs to the public. In this case though, it's simple, out of the public purse into Larson's supporter's wallet.
Can hardly wait to hear what he's got to offer his other contributors and advertisers if he makes it onto the county council.
Am I the only one who remembers when the Alaska Packers Association operated the largest cannery in the world across the bay at Point Roberst, with a shipyard, additional canning facilites and warehousing at Semiahmo, where Syre and Imus will now bring us this "new economy"?
It may only be petty Larsony to scapegoat struggling families, like Tony does, turned out of their homes by predatory lenders, banksters who sold them on mortgages that couldn't survive a housing bubble; but for Tony, the victims are responsible for bringing down the financial system and propelling us into a depression.
That's just the kind a guy he is. Who needs to kiss babies when there are big, fat, rich asses available?
But it's gotta be grand Larsony, or some kind of fraud, to put a sign in your yard that says We the People and then go to work for the landed gentry we the people are taxed like serfs to enrich; all to keep their real estate schemes going a little longer.
Who do you think's payin' for those big signs all over the county? (hell if I know, I can't find an expenditure reporting them at the PDC) But you can be sure of one thing: somewhere, back there behind the scenes, it's the BIAW crowd puttin' up the plywood for Larson.
If you were active politically around the state, you'd have learned that Kremen County is famous for its foolishness in growth management; pretty much the laughing stock of Washington.
Not only was Kremen considered the village idiot when he was in Olympia, our anointing him to lead the county, and our inability to unseat him all these years, has left us indelibly marked as the kind of community characterized in such epics as the Dukes of Hazard.
And now, here comes Tony Larson hoping to join such powerhouses as Billy Knutzen and Kathy Kershner in Crawford's club. All bought and paid for by the least civicly responsible lobby in the state, the BIAW and their hangers on. I can guarantee you Kremen won't endorse Larson's opponent.
Well, it's a marriage made in heaven; and portends to be a very interesting menage a trois going forward.
For a group that's primary purpose is misdirecting public attention, Tony's the perfect candidate. Plenty of experience selling the sizzle without a stake in the action, his business basically manufactures hot air. So who better to partner up with than the crew that's been puffin' at the publics posterior for decades now.
Larson writes, "The political class has dug an enormous economic hole for us." (I'm not kiddin!) It wasn't the fraudsters of finance and their bang up job with the housing bubble economists recognize.
Given Larson's absolution of the bailout beneficiaries on Wall Street, it's hard to figure who's dumb and dumber, him or the Tea Party folks who can't figure out it's his crap that stinks.
But they say he's their boy. I hear they're even puttin' on a "teabate" for him to star in. And (I ain't makin' this up) it's gonna be at the Building Industry headquarters. (I swear! It's true! That's right, the same place Sam has his barbecues!)
Oh, it's just so precious; the way they keep it all in the family.
Next I expect Nick Kaiser and his right handpuppet, Brent Bonner (Whatcom dis-Information Center) to ratchet up the rhetoric to make us believe the county council can turn around the jobs market; and without mentioning their boy Tony by name, infer the hypster's campaign propaganda is just the ticket out of this morass.
The only industry Whatcom county government has ever been able to help is the local land use bar. And that's why Larson will be their boy. Along with Crawford, Kershner and Knutzen, Larson represents the winning vote for a whole grab bag of policies that will ultimately keep them and their clients face down in the trough for decades to come.
And when Larson talks about "imposing costly regulations" on "productive individuals" he means enforcing land use regulations on the developers that fund him, because that's about the only regulation county government has much of a hand in.
And when he says, "if we’re going to create jobs, it’s going to require our government officials backing up their rhetoric with action," he actually means, with inaction in regulating building and development.
Trouble is, as job creators go, it's a fraud. Who's gonna buy these houses everyone's ostensibly going to build? Helloooooo! The bubble's burst and the housing market's cratering.
Larson's rhetoric is completely hollow. There are no jobs to be created by increasing the land supply for residential development and relaxing environmental regulations already proven inadequate to protect Lake Whatcom; it's just a big favor to the money behind his campaign, and his campaign next year. Folks still in denial.
The more you look at Tony Larson, the less you see. My advice to the candidate is don't say any more, and disappear until after the election. Let your friends buy the election like they did last time.
