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The braindeads over at Snohomish County have approved the position of a county "inclusion manager," who will "strategically focus the county's actions to ensure that everyone who lives in Snohomish County has fair access to services and that they have an equal opportunity to contribute to the county's services as employees or volunteers."

What the press release don't say is that it will cost taxpayers $75,000 this year as an "emergency appropriation." I'll leave it to the reader to guess at what makes this an emergency.

Note that there is absolutely no evidence that there is any need whatsosver for this position. They throw around this one statistic: nonwhites are 18 percent of the county population, and 10 percent of the county government. But that, obviously, doesn't mean there isn't fair access or equal opportunity, nor does it demonstrate a problem that needs to be fixed.

(Maybe whites are just more likely to be dumb or desperate enough to want to work for a county that is becoming increasingly difficult to work in due to poor managament and incompetence? Just a thought.)

County Councilman Dave Gossett said -- and I am not making this up -- "adding an inclusion manager is a major step in doing here what this country is all about."

But Councilman Brian Sullivan went one step closer toward the intellectual abyss, saying, "as one speaker today said, 'Inclusion means everyone,' and that's what hiring an inclusion manager is all about: everyone." Welp, I'm convinced!

Councilman John Koster, the only Republican on the Council -- who, along with term-limited councilmen Kirke Sievers (D) and Gary Nelson (R) killed the position in 2006 -- also had the only sane thing to say about it this time around: "with the economy at risk, we simply can't afford this position."

That should go without saying, although I'd add that even if we had money coming out of our ears, we still couldn't afford this position any more than we could afford to use the money for a bonfire for warmth. Come to think of it, both a bonfire and this position are similar: they do nothing but make us feel better.

Even Councilman Mike Cooper unknowingly agrees it is a useless position, saying that voting it down was a "slap in the face." There's no actual argument about WHY we need it. We just, you know, do. Because it's offensive that we don't. Boeing and Microsoft have the position, so we should too.

Cross-posted on <pudge/*>.