New city of Bellingham website? (link disabled Mon morn) Sure looks like it. Check it out. I wouldn’t want to lie.

—Late Sun night. Does the city read this site? Bet your bibby they do. The new city site was taken down late Sunday evening. I’m leaving the link to nowhere up. But here is what it looked like earlier today. Added note even later: Gee, if I had not taken a screen dump of the city site, the city guys could call me a liar. So easy for government to cover up things. Toss, shred, lose, gag staff, delete. Still later note: contacted by city. Indeed they are working on a new site and I am respecting their need to work offline. Link is now disabled.

A comment or two on Friday’s post. I’ve received many calls and emails of support - and none of criticism. I appreciate the support because that post was the most difficult in the 12 years of posting here. It was about me and I have tried to keep myself out of all this as much as possible. That may change. Interestingly, no elected person from the county council nor the county government has contacted me. Perhaps they feel that what Pete does is none of their business - or they have known about his abusive tendencies and don’t care. Or, even worse, are protecting him. I intend to find out. This issue will not blow away on the three-day memory.

The main reason I posted that was to hopefully stop Pete Kremen from abusing others. I’m a tough old fart and if he got to me then he could be devastating to others - especially young people and women. It is a mistake to think this was an isolated incident. Ask any professionals who deal with abusive personalities. Further, I have nothing to lose by any action of Pete’s - but others do. County employees and those who do business with the county or are dependent on the goodwill of county officials have much to lose. Perhaps abuse like this has played a role in the recent resignations of many county staff.

Pete and Joe Bates accused me of being a liar. But they did not identify any lie - and that was the one question I kept asking them. The closest they came was my speculation that Joe was indulging in illegal political activity on behalf of Pete. Joe asked for (dared me actually) space on this page to rebut and I said yes. The next day he changed his mind. That offer is still open - if he replies quickly.

I try to print the truth. And not lie. I challenge anyone to provide evidence to show lies on this website. This page is not a court of law - but there is evidence behind all that is posted here. Sometimes there is evidence that is ‘off the record’ and I cannot cite it. One example. A prominent local politician recently gave me information off the record. Later, that person accused me of lying when I alluded to that information in a legitimate manner - that is, without involving that politician. Now, I cannot use the fact that they gave me the info because I have to honor the off-the-record agreement. But they can publically call me a liar. How charming. The info was in the interest of the community to know.

Gentle reader, you should know that prominent sources are delighted to give me info on others but throw a fit when I post something critical of them. It is the nature of politics. And I accept that. But keep in mind that providing the news media with facts hurtful to political opponents is a routine practice in politics. And it is common for these same politicians to then say they consider the news media to have the facts wrong. They know better. This website has as its mission to provide information that we citizens need in order to participate intelligently in our own governance. I get that information from a lot of sources.

Back in the early 1990s, I was critical of the Port of Bellingham. The Port blew off $4.2 million on the KAP real estate fiasco. I had an off-the-record source on the Port staff. The Port commissioners - including Scott Walker - were trying to find and fire that source. They fired three people over two years time thinking they were feeding me information. None were. When the 3rd one was fired in early 1994 I quit my criticism of the Port. I was sick that the Port would act that way. Over the 20-some years that I have been commenting on our local governments, not one source has ever been revealed nor fired from any local government. And I am proud of that. Nor have I ever revealed a confidential political source.

Deciding to tell the truth is easy. Judging what is the truth is hard. Those people who live each day fudging facts and the truth for their own benefit think it would be easy to suddenly start being truthful. They have no idea. The hard part is figuring out what the hell is the truth - how do the facts lead to a statement that conveys the reality of something. And that is a challenge I enjoy. This website does not make up things. I do make mistakes or interpret information in a wrong way. But, if it is posted here then I have reason to think it is true.