Goodbye Tim Russert...

Tim Russert, a political commentator and analyst probably best known for his role as the host of Sunday morning's "Meet the Press", died today of a heart attack. He was only 58. A lot of famous people's deaths occur in which I think, "That's too bad...", but I feel a lot sadder that he has passed than many other "famous" people you hear about. He was a really intelligent man and interviewed most anybody who was anybody in the Political field. He would ask hard-hitting questions that could leave a politician squirming to find a way out and keep on hammering away with a nice volley to get to the "inside" of the person he was speaking to. He will def be remembered as an influencial man and his face is def recognizable, even if you don't know who he was, per se. He would be on NBC anytime elections were coming up and he was constantly a political commentator/guest speaker/interviewer/debate host/etc.

He came into my, as well as many others', house most every Sunday morning where he faced countless guests, candidates running for political offices, politicians, and many more, each week, asking very tough questions and putting them in the hot seat, but always fairly and doing it by asking them directly about their own beliefs, their own statements they had made, and their own actions. He was a fair and classy moderator of Meet The Press and became sort of like a member of the family, "coming over" each Sunday morning for breakfast and some political conversation.

6/15/2008: Additionally, for this morning's Meet The Press, Tom Brokaw hosted and had a number of Russert's colleagues and analysts on the show, such as James Carville and Maria Shriver was on via satellite. It was a very touching and heartfelt hour, looking back at the life of a man who from such simple working-class roots made his way up to having interviewed and grilled most of the most powerful and influencial figures in politics today. It really was moving, but great to see all sides of him, talking about his avid sports interests, his strong Catholic background, his family life, and his focus on the importance of Fathers and Fatherhood, on this first Sunday after his death, which was Father's Day. I was really happy to see how this took place in this first Meet The Press after his death and I had a lot of tears at the end, during their slideshow/clips of the man from his early life throughout his career.

Ban the Bottle!

I'm still working on trying to propose a container tax for water bottles (at least, or cans/bottles/etc.), but it seems a longer process than I thought. Well, not really, but I read that trying to write a bill for it would be easier to make progress with because you then just submit it to whoever, like submitting to Senator Cantwell to try to get her to push it further, for example.

In the meantime, something that has already happened that is a pretty good step has been Mayor Nickels' ban on the city of Seattle purchasing bottled water. It's only for the city of Seattle and might not sound like much, but the city of Seattle spent $58,000 on bottled water last year! $58,000!!! I think that taxpayers can all think of better ways to spend tax money than overpriced water, though they might pay for it at home. But aside from the financial savings that will be had, there is also the oil saved from less water bottles created and less waste created as an aftermath and considering how great our water is that comes out of the tap in Seattle, bottled water really does seem like a waste and just a luxury convenience.