Archives for June 2006

Mike McGavick’s nightmare became reality yesterday, with the Iranian national soccer team tainting the hallowed name of Nuremberg’s Frankenstadion in their World Cup opening match. Despite McGavick’s impassioned plea to ban the Iranians from international competition, (gasp) soccer was played, and on the very field where the Hitler Youth first learned to goose step. A foreign policy disaster if I ever saw one.

Of course nothing quite pumps up national pride like getting your asses kicked by Mexico, who outscored Iran 3-1 in their World Cup opener. This puts Iran into last place in Group D with 0 points and a -2 goal differential. If Mexico goes on to beat Angola on Friday and Portugal dispatches Iran on Saturday (and the smart money is on both), the Iranian’s World Cup hopes will once again be dashed before they finish the opening round.

If only Mike McGavick were in the US Senate, this foreign policy fiasco would have been avoided.

In a letter published in the Puget Sound Business Journal, the unfortunately named State Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-Hobart) amusingly attempts to frame real estate salesman Dino Rossi’s 2008 gubernatorial campaign:

Washington state’s economy is booming. Unemployment is the lowest since 1999. We’ve added 94,000 nonfarm jobs, exports are up and business is good. That’s the natural result of the Rossi recovery, shaped from the no-new-taxes budget that Sen. Dino Rossi crafted as a senator in 2003.

The “Rossi Recovery”…? Gimme a break.

Assuming for a moment you’re not rolling on the floor laughing at the ridiculous notion of crediting one man or one budget for our state’s economic performance three years later… by Pflug’s logic (or lack thereof,) if anybody deserves kudos for the economy, it’s former Gov. Gary Locke.

Far from “shaping” 2003’s no-new-taxes budget, Rossi was merely following the Governor’s lead. How can I be so sure? Well, in introducing the Senate’s 2003 budget proposal, Rossi led off a press briefing with a PowerPoint presentation titled: “Following the Governor’s Lead.”

In fact, apart from cutting 46,000 low-income kids off health care and a few other tweaks, the so-called “Rossi budget” was pretty much the same budget Locke had proposed months earlier.

I know Rossi doesn’t have very many legislative accomplishments to his credit, so it’s no surprise to see Republicans trotting out this tired old saw again. But as the 2008 election season approaches (and believe it or not, it’s approaching) I just hope my friends in the media don’t allow Rossi and his surrogates to continue to make this claim unchallenged.

Tune in tonight on 710-KIRO from 7 to 10PM, for the Puget Sound region’s only unabashedly liberal talk radio show:

7PM: The Stranger’s Eli Sanders is back from Vegas where he witnessed the blogger revolution at Yearly Kos. He’ll fill us in on the details, and maybe give us a first hand account of Tim Eyman’s failure in Olympia this week.

8PM: Chris Van Dyk from Citizens for More Important Things will join us to talk the Sonics, Key Arena, and his group’s Initiative 91 to prohibit public subsidies of professional sports stadiums. Are the Sonics worth $200 million in taxpayer money? How about the Storm? Or do we have other priorities? (You know, things like schools.)

9PM: Was the 2004 Presidential election stolen? The Seattle Weekly’s Geov Parrish joins me to talk about Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s stunning expose on Rolling Stone, and why the traditional media won’t cover it. What does this mean for WA state and our move to all vote-by-mail?

Tune in or stream live and join the debate tonight from 7 to 10PM. Call me at 877-710-KIRO (5476) or leave a comment here, and I promise I’ll actually try to read the thread.

I’m not exactly sure what it means, but the blogosphere is definitely going mainstream. Tonight I officially start broadcasting on 710-KIRO, from 7-10 PM (more details later on tonight’s program,) while over in Vegas, “Yearly Kos” is taking the the political and journalism establishments by storm.

Andrew, Lynn and Eli all have reports from Vegas.

Snidely worded as it was, I actually thought professional initiative monger Tim Eyman might take me up on my offer to have him on the first hour of this Sunday’s inaugural show. Apparently not.

And in typical Tim fashion, rather than just simply declining, he had to try to spin it into some kind of media game, demanding that he’d only come on if he could have all three hours — a demand he knew I would not (and as it turns out, could not) accept. And then he goes and forwards our email thread to the Seattle Times’ David Postman… as if that’s going to achieve anything other than drive more traffic to my blog.

For his part, Postman makes a salient point that perhaps it was a little hypocritical of me to advise the press to ignore Tim, and then go and invite him onto my show. Yeah, I guess. At the very least it’s probably bad strategy. I’m not approaching my radio show any differently than I approach my blogging — I’m an unabashed, partisan liberal with an unabashed, partisan liberal agenda — but I suppose I need to give some thought as to how my first, tentative steps into the cold waters of the mainstream might change my role in the media.

Anyway, I generally view the publishing of private emails as a violation of net etiquette, but since Tim is already forwarding our email thread to journalists, I suppose that gives me his tacit permission to go public.

From: David Goldstein
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:49 AM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

It wasn’t intended to be a game of poker, Tim. As snidely worded as my offer was, it was genuine; that’s why I followed up with the phone call. I’d say it was you who bluffed… except it was so transparent an effort to save face, it’s not really worthy of being called a bluff.

Besides, I couldn’t give you all three hours if I wanted to. (And I don’t.) When I forwarded your demand to KIRO management, the immediate response was “definitely do not let him do more than an hour.”

So it’s your choice. If you want to come on the show, we’ll be talking about you in the first hour. You know the number; call in and I’ll put you on the air.

Whatever. Postman was right; I probably shouldn’t have made you the offer in the first place. If we all ignore you, maybe you’ll go away.

—–Original Message—–
From: “Tim Eyman”
To: David Goldstein
Date: Saturday – June 10, 2006 8:00 AM
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

In this hand of political poker, you bluffed, I went all in, and you, afraid of an extended debate with me on the issues, decided to fold.

Gutless coward.

Regards, Tim Eyman

—–Original Message—–
From: David Goldstein
Sent: Saturday, June 10, 2006 7:49 AM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

Save your breath Tim, that shit doesn’t work with me. You want 3 hours of air-time, go get your own show. My offer stands: 1 hour at 7pm. And if you don’t show, it’s you who will be hiding under a rock, while I’m on the air.

Probably a good decision on your part, though. If you had just ignored me three years ago when the “horse’s ass” story broke, the media would have quickly lost interest. Instead, by engaging me directly the way you did, you built me up. Um… thanks.

Oh… and if you think a large audience and the news media would listen in just to hear the two of us debate, you’ve got a more inflated ego than I thought.

Ah well, it’s up to you. Let me know if you change your mind.

David

—–Original Message—–
From: “Tim Eyman”
To: David Goldstein
Date: Friday – June 9, 2006 9:46 PM
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

It’s clear you are afraid … deathly afraid of an extended debate with me with a large audience, including the news media, who will listen and report the results. Instead, you’ve chosen to crawl underneath a rock to hide from me after I accepted your pathetic challenge. Gutless coward.

3 hours with callers; my offer still stands. If you muster some courage, let me know.

Regards, Tim Eyman

—–Original Message—–
From: David Goldstein
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 9:23 PM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

No Tim, I’m afraid I’d bore my audience and lose my new job. Truth is you’re not all that interesting. That’s why I have a show and you don’t.

Whatever. If you want to pass up a chance to plug your car tabs initiative that’s up to you. If you change your mind, let me know.

David

—–Original Message—–
From: “Tim Eyman”
To: David Goldstein
Date: Friday – June 9, 2006 6:49 PM
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

Why? Are you afraid that you can’t handle an extended debate on the issues? Afraid that you’ll look foolish? Yeah, that’s it, isn’t it?

Let me know if you change your mind, coward.

Regards, Tim Eyman

—–Original Message—–
From: David Goldstein [mailto:dgold@entercom.com]
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 2:23 PM
To: insignia@greekwatch.com
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

Funny, Tim. I doubt the audience can take three hours of me, let alone three hours of the two of us.

I can promise you a full hour if you like, from 7 to 8. You know I can’t do anymore than that. That would be the best hour for you too, as we’ll still have Frank Shiers audience listening.

Let me know.

David

—–Original Message—–
From: “Tim Eyman”
To: David Goldstein
Date: Friday – June 9, 2006 2:00 PM
Subject: RE: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

Yes, but only if we go the full 3 hours. That way, there will time for lots of callers to call-in.

Let me know if that works for you.

Regards, Tim Eyman

—–Original Message—–
From: David Goldstein
Sent: Friday, June 09, 2006 9:48 AM
To: Tim Eyman
Subject: 710-KIRO, Sunday at 7PM?

Tim,

In case you haven’t heard, 710-KIRO has just hired me as the new host on Sunday nights from 7 to 10 PM, and considering how closely intertwined our careers have been these past few years — yours in decline, mine in ascendence — I thought it would be only fitting if you would honor me as my first guest, this Sunday at 7 PM.

Now I know you might have some reservations about appearing on the air with a host who made his name by calling you names, but this is radio, and you are, after all, a media whore. Just this past Monday you told the angry throng of reporters you duplicitously drew to the Secretary of State’s office that “there’s no such thing as bad press.” So why not join me on my inaugural show and see how far we can push that maxim?

Again, please remember that this is radio Tim, radio — tens of thousands of people hearing you talk — so if there really is no such thing as bad press, what do you have to lose? And besides, we’re going to talk about you anyway, so why not be there to defend yourself?

Please let me know if you can join me Sunday night. I look forward to continuing our close working relationship.

Sincerely,

David Goldstein
710-KIRO

We’ll be talking about Tim and the shenanigans surrounding his failure to qualify R-65 for the ballot. Tim knows the number; if he calls in I’ll put him on the air.

While teen smoking rates have leveled off nationwide after years of decline, they continue to drop in WA state, which has one of the nation’s most aggressive and successful teen anti-smoking campaigns.

Around the state a 2004 survey showed 19.7 percent of 12th-graders — down from 22.7 percent in 2002 — and 13 percent of 10th-graders — down 15 percent in 2002 — reported having smoked, said Tim Church, spokesman for the state Health Department.

That compares to an overall 23 percent rate from the 2004 national survey.

What’s our secret?

Washington spends roughly 80 percent of a $100 million settlement from a 2000 tobacco-industry lawsuit on preventing tobacco use, putting it in the top tier of states nationwide, Valdez and Church said. While tobacco prevention covers all ages, youth are a particular focus because 80 percent of adult smokers begin under the age of 18, Valdez said.

Of course it was Gov. Christine Gregoire who led the fight against the tobacco industry, who brought the settlement money to WA state, and who has championed our state’s teen anti-smoking efforts. That’s a great example of effective government that saves lives.

I just sent the following email (via my new Entercom account) to my good friend Tim Eyman, inviting him on the show:

Tim,

In case you haven’t heard, 710-KIRO has just hired me as the new host on Sunday nights from 7 to 10 PM, and considering how closely intertwined our careers have been these past few years — yours in decline, mine in ascendence — I thought it would be only fitting if you would honor me as my first guest, this Sunday at 7 PM.

Now I know you might have some reservations about appearing on the air with a host who made his name by calling you names, but this is radio, and you are, after all, a media whore. Just this past Monday you told the angry throng of reporters you duplicitously drew to the Secretary of State’s office that “there’s no such thing as bad press.” So why not join me on my inaugural show and see how far we can push that maxim?

Again, please remember that this is radio Tim, radio — tens of thousands of people hearing you talk — so if there really is no such thing as bad press, what do you have to lose? And besides, we’re going to talk about you anyway, so why not be there to defend yourself?

Please let me know if you can join me Sunday night. I look forward to continuing our close working relationship.

Sincerely,

David Goldstein
710-KIRO

I’ll let you know if he responds.

UPDATE:
I spoke with Tim briefly this morning to assure him my offer is sincere. He said he’d look for my email and get back to me.

After voting against repealing the estate tax, Sen. Maria Cantwell issued the following statement:

“I support repealing the estate tax for small businesses and family farms. A 55 percent tax rate is unfair for America’s small businesses and family farms; they deserve tax fairness. It’s my hope that we can find an estate tax reform compromise before this expires in 2011. The vote the Republican majority pushed today was a vote for full repeal

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On day three of the media circus that followed the filing of I-831 — my initiative to officially proclaim Tim Eyman a “horse’s ass” — I found myself sitting in the KVI studio with John Carlson, debating Timmy over the phone. I was nervous. And a bit stunned. I’m not sure if John noticed, but I was even shaking a little.

But damn, it was fun.

I never much liked listening to commercial talk radio — too many breaks — but I sure had a great time doing it, and I walked out of John’s studio thinking that I’d sure love to have his job. You know… except for the part about being a right-wing partisan.

Well, I never did get John’s job, but it looks like I just got Turi Ryder’s. 710-KIRO’s management was pleased enough with my performance filling in the 7PM to 10PM slot this past Sunday, that they just gave me the show on a regular basis. I suppose it will be called “The David Goldstein Show” or something. Every Sunday from 7PM to 10PM.

Sorry, Turi. I feel bad getting my foot in the door at your expense. And thank you Turi, for teaching me my first radio biz lesson: never call in sick.

I would also like to sincerely thank KVI’s John Carlson and Kirby Wilbur for being nothing but gracious and courteous to me these past few years. They’re totally wrong on nearly all the issues, but they’ve always been fair and supportive both on and off the air. My frequent appearances on their shows not only gave me my taste for the medium, but helped prepare me for my opportunity when it finally came. That said, someday I hope to compete against one or the other in drive-time, and eat their audience.

Sincere thanks also go to the whole Podcasting Liberally crew, especially to Gavin and Richard for being so generous with both their time and their insanely impressive portable audio studio. The past few months of weekly podcasts have allowed me to grow comfortable in the role of host; when I finally got my shot on-air, it felt just like doing the podcast, only without the beer.

And finally a not quite as sincere thanks to our good friend Stefan Sharkansky. It is ironic to note that it was Stefan’s excerpt of Sandeep saying “fuck” on our podcast, and my subsequent defense of it on my new colleague Dori Monson’s show, that initially perked up the ears of KIRO management. Thank you Stefan for everything you have done to promote my career.

Perennial candidate Mark Wilson, who previously ran for Congress as a Libertarian and for Senate as a Green, and who is now mounting a primary challenge to Sen. Maria Cantwell (I suppose as a Democrat,) likes to point to his endorsement by Snohomish County’s 38th Legislative District Democrats as evidence that his is a serious challenge. Well, no more.

The Democratic Party in Snohomish County’s 38th Legislative District has rescinded its endorsement of Mark Wilson, the anti-war candidate running a longshot primary campaign against Sen. Maria Cantwell.

The endorsement has been brought up by Wilson backers as an official sign of support for the protest candidate. Cantwell has been dogged by anti-war Democrats who say she should renounce her 2002 vote to authorize the Iraq invasion.

But Rep. John McCoy, D-Tulalip, thought it was important to “show unity of the Democratic Party behind Maria Cantwell.”

On Monday, the 38th District Democrats voted to endorse Cantwell and to rescind Wilson’s endorsement.

Wilson said the move was done out of “reactionary fear for self-preservation.”

Yeah, well, I suppose one could try to spin this as “reactionary fear,” though instead, I’d say it reeks of something that some anti-war activists find even more distasteful: political pragmatism. Like others, I find Wilson to be an affable guy, but his quixotic primary campaign is nothing but a minor distraction from the real election in November.

The 38th LD Dems, whatever their majority position on the war is — and I’m guessing that like most Democrats their position is that they’d like to get out — have recognized the fact that Sen. Cantwell is the party’s nominee, and that if we want a shot at retaking the Senate and turning this nation around, we all need to rally behind her the way, you know… Republicans rally behind their candidates. Even Sen. Russ Feingold, perhaps the Dems’ most vocal anti-war leader, came to Seattle to stump for Sen. Cantwell, because he knows that the best way to promote his agenda is to give his party control of the Senate.

Wilson finds all this undemocratic:

“The incumbents are determined to protect each other over and beyond any Democratic values or rules,” he said.

Uh-huh. The rules were followed when the 38th endorsed Wilson, and the rules were followed when they rescinded it. That’s democracy, Mark. You lost. (I’d say, “get used to it” but he already has.)

[UPDATE: Never mind.]

Over at the highly credible Talking Points Memo, Josh Marshall writes that Sen. Maria Cantwell is in play on the estate tax repeal.

Okay, big estate tax repeal vote this morning in the senate. I hear Sens. Cantwell and Pryor are the key Dems in play. If you want to make your voice heard, now’s the time.

Cantwell in particular is probably the one your calls can help pull back from the dark side.

I suppose it’s a tough vote when you’re up for reelection and the publisher of your state’s biggest newspaper has a ten-foot woodie for estate tax repeal, but I hope Sen. Cantwell is savvy enough to realize that the Times is going to endorse McGavick regardless of how she votes… even on this issue.

FYI, estate tax repeal would cost the nation nearly $1 trillion during its first ten years, at a time when we are facing record budget deficits, and growing costs from the war in Iraq, the war on terrorism and the rebuilding of the Katrina-ravaged Gulf states.

And of course, all of the benefits of repeal go to the very wealthy in a nation where the wealthiest 1 percent own 33.4 percent of the wealth, more than the poorest 90 percent combined. For example, estate tax repeal would save Dick Cheney’s heirs between $13 million and $61 million. Donald Rumsfeld’s estate would save between $32 million and $101 million. The estate of retired Exxon Mobil chairman Lee Raymond would save about $164 million. And of course the heirs of Sam Walton’s kids would save billions.

So call (206-220-6400, 888-648-7328, 202-224-3441 ) or email Sen. Cantwell right now, and tell her to do the right thing and vote against estate tax repeal.

UPDATE:
Guess I was slow on the trigger. The cloture vote failed, and the estate tax repeal is dead for now. Cantwell voted with the Dems, against cloture. So why not call or email thanking her for doing the right thing?

We had a gay old time at Drinking Liberally last night, celebrating Referendum 65’s demise by packing our panel with gay men. (Um… so to speak.) Helping us rub Tim Eyman’s nose in his latest failure were two of the state’s better known homosexuals, 43rd LD Rep. Ed Murray and The Stranger editor and nationally syndicated sex columnist Dan Savage… plus The Stranger’s lesser known (and lady-dazzled) Eli Sanders.

Joining me (Goldy), Ed, Dan and Eli in nondiscriminatory political discourse were Mollie, Will, and Carl. When Will wasn’t brown-nosing Dan, our topics of discussion included the dramatic collapse of the anti-anti-discrimination movement, prospects for gay marriage in WA state, "An Inconvenient Truth", who we really want to run for president (hint: watch "An Inconvenient Truth") and smelly buses vs. glittering monorail. Did you know Mollie once killed a man on a city bus? It’s true. Give it a listen.

The show is 54:08, and is available here as a 34 MB MP3. Please visit PodcastingLiberally.com for complete archives and RSS feeds.

[Recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Confab creators Gavin and Richard for producing the show.]

Well, the vast right-wing conspiracy finally succeeded in shutting me up. It took knocking out power to half of SE Seattle, but I’m pretty much shut down for the moment.

UPDATE:
I’m back, but in my absence our good friend Stefan blamed the govmint:

Ah, the advantages of having a government-owned electric utility.

Um… yeah… I suppose it could have been the govmint’s fault. Or perhaps we should blame the guy who knocked down a utility pole?

I suppose it’s possible Stefan was just joking, but either way it shows how tired the right’s anti-govmint rhetoric is getting. I mean, really.

Amen, Rev. Joseph Fuiten:

The lack of signatures, Fuiten said, tells him that “Tim Eyman has a knack for messing stuff up. He’s kind of an interloper on this whole thing, in my opinion. Part of the deal is resistance to him.”

Apparently, initiative profiteer Tim Eyman has failed to produce enough signatures to qualify Referendum 65 for the ballot. More later….

UPDATE:
Andrew Villeneuve of NPI called me from the Secretary of State’s office to report that Timmy made a big show of arriving late, counting petitions in front of reporters, and then… oh no… dramatically announcing that he just fell short with a total of 105,000 signatures. Indeed, I’ve already heard radio reports repeating that number.

But here’s the thing — and this is very important to remember — Tim Eyman is a lying sack of shit. No really… he is. So you cannot believe a single word he says.

The Sec. of State didn’t count the petitions, Tim did. And according to Andrew, he didn’t even count the signatures, just the petitions at hand. So this 105,000 number… it’s total bullshit.

Now that I’ve pointed this out, I expect that no other media outlet will repeat it. And there’s no need to. Eyman failed to qualify R-65 for the ballot. That’s all you need to report. Eyman failed. Once again.

Earlier today the WA state Christian Coalition announced it had collected 14,000 signatures. Big whoop. Sounds to me like Referendum Sunday was dud, and our right-wing Evangelicals have proven themselves to be paper tigers. I mean if you have God on your side and you have our state’s most experienced initiative monger on your side, how can you fail?

I’ll tell you how… it’s what I’ve been saying all along: most people oppose discrimination. Even Republicans. And most people simply don’t think it’s all that American to deny somebody a mortgage just because you think he might be gay. We can’t trust Eyman’s numbers, but from the lack of reports of gee, I dunno… actual signature gatherers, my educated guess is that Tim probably didn’t collect half the signatures he reported. And that, I suppose, is a referendum of sorts, all by itself.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
I guess this is what happens when you dance with the devil:

Leaders of some of the church groups who’d backed the measure, which would have vetoed a ban on discrimination based on sexual orientation, were deeply disappointed and surprised. Some said they were also unhappy at Eyman’s refusal in recent weeks to tell them how many signatures he’d gathered. In the end, the Faith and Freedom Network’s Gary Randall said, Eyman simply stopped replying to his calls.

Um… Timmy didn’t return your calls because he was lying about the signature count all along. Of course, they didn’t seem to mind Tim’s lies when they were repeating them from the pulpit, so I suppose what goes around comes around.

Oh and by the way, as Andrew reminds us, Timmy is not only a liar, but a failure.

This, of course, is simply another failure in a growing list failures for Eyman. Other recent failures include I-892 and I-864 (2004), I-807 (2003) and I-267 (2002).