Last night I proudly Tweeted that I hadn't read the Seattle Times in days (online or in print), and that I hadn't missed it all. In fact, I felt pretty damn good. And then this morning I got a phone call from a political buddy insisting that I just had to read this editorial.

Oh my god, what a bunch of SHAMELESS FUCKING LIARS:

Gov. Chris Gregoire, who is not running for office, recently said the state needed a tax increase. She said both Inslee and McKenna were wrong in denying this.

McKenna may not be wrong. He would come up with the money by squeezing the non-education parts of the budget and possibly by replacing local school levies with a state levy. The Legislature might not accept this, and his plan might fall short. But it is a real plan. It makes sense and it would get the state much of the way there.

No, it is not "a real plan." It is a lie. And the editors know this.

As I explained last week, the $1.7 billion in new education spending that Rob McKenna proposes for the 2013-2015 budget—the "down payment" on the McCleary decision that is mentioned earlier in the editorial—does not add a single penny to total K-12 spending. It just doesn't. Washington's public schools would be just as underfunded after this "property tax swap" as the were before.

$1.7 billion more in state levy dollars minus $1.7 billion in local levy dollars equals zero.

And that's not just my opinion. It's fucking math! Based on numbers from McKenna's own spreadsheet!

For the Seattle Times and other media outlets to echo this bullshit in the immediate wake of McKenna's announcement was understandable, if not excusable. McKenna was counting on journalists' inability or unwillingness to do the math. And they didn't.

But last week, I did the math for them. I showed my math. It is irrefutable. Nobody has even tried to refute it. McKenna's education plan provides no additional dollars for K-12 in 2013-2015.

So for the Seattle Times not only to ignore their ethical obligation to correct the record but to actually double down on McKenna's bogus claim... well... it doesn't happen often... but... I'm at loss for words. Nothing I could write could be profane or obscene enough to express my genuine outrage over the editors' utter disregard for truth.

If Rob McKenna wins on Tuesday it will be because thousands of normally Democratic voters cast their ballots for him believing that he is the candidate with the plan to spend more money on K-12 education. I know these voters. I've spoken to some of them. What matters most to them are their children's schools. And they are being lied to and exploited.

If it was just the McKenna campaign spreading these lies, that would be one thing. That's what political campaigns do. But this is the Seattle Times, the largest daily newspaper in our state—our state's paper of record—using its editorial page to intentionally deceive its readers about something as simple as simple math.

I started this post intending to write a foul-mouthed rant, but I could wear out the FUCK key on my keyboard and never come close to adequately expressing my anger and disappointment. It is a privilege to serve on a daily newspaper editorial board... a privilege that Frank Blethen and his editors clearly don't deserve.