Archives for December 2007

Locally this morning, none of the top five headlines of the Seattle Times and P-I match each other, which is a clue as to how slow a news day it is. It’ll likely stay this way through the new year. The holiday fill is particularly in full force over at the Times, whose Danny Westneat informs us this morning that “Jolly isn’t mandatory.” For the other side of this breaking controversy, KOMO-TV last night gave us “Christmas will still be merry.” (We crabby secularists at HA tend to side with Westneat.)

Meanwhile, what’s actually going on in, um, news? Not much. A barge ran aground at Elliot Bay Marina, and nothing leaked. After much lobbying by the Fremont businesses that must deal with the splattered remains, Gov. Gregoire is including in her new budget $1.4 million for a suicide prevention fence on Aurora Bridge.

And, in a P-I column likely to irritate the faithful (but a sentiment a lot of local Democratic activists & pols privately agree with), Joel Connelly calls today for Jim McDermott to retire in 2008. Why? Because Baghdad Jim is broke (having just lost his long-running court case), ineffective, and carries no weight even with his own party leaders. Connelly even suggests some possible successors (all Democrats, natch):

Five names come immediately to mind: state Sen. Ed Murray, ex-City Councilwoman Martha Choe, attorney Jenny Durkan, state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, or — if he quells a midlife crisis — Ron Sims.

Nationally, we learn this morning, courtesy the New York Times, that

At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the C.I.A. about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two Qaeda operatives.

And, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, the FCC voted to allow newspaper cross-ownership of TV and radio stations in the nation’s top 20 markets (including Seattle).

Oh, and Senate Democrats caved on Iraq spending again. Yawn.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Stop on by for some hoppy beer and hopped up conversation.

I’m not sure what kind of crowds we’ll get the next two Tuesdays (or if the Ale House is even open Christmas night and New Year’s Day,) so if you suffer from the DL DT’s, you better come by tonight and drink your fill.

Not in Seattle? Liberals will also be drinking tonight in the Tri-Cities. A full listing of Washington’s thirteen Drinking Liberally chapters is available here.

I just gave this guy some cash:

Greenwald has more on what happened:

From the beginning, there was pure hostility from numerous Beltway crevices towards Dodd’s stance. The Beltway media largely ignored it except to mock it and question its authenticity with their standard lip-curling, jaded pettiness. The very day that Dodd announced his hold, Harry Reid made clear that he was hostile to it, and strongly insinuated that he would not honor it. That led to an outburst of anger directed towards Reid’s office which caused them — falsely as it turns out — to spend weeks issuing public and private assurances that Reid would treat Dodd’s hold the same way he treats other holds.

More significantly still, the leading presidential candidates — particularly Clinton and Obama — originally said nothing about any of these matters. That led to a separate joint effort from blogs and their readers, along with MoveOn, to demand that the Clinton and Obama campaigns issue a statement vowing to support Dodd’s stance. When the issued statements were ambiguous and seemingly noncommittal, a further controversy erupted, and in response, the Obama campaign (though never the Clinton campaign) clarified that they intended to express categorical and unconditional support for Dodd’s filibuster.

Without question, it was those efforts, spontaneously created and driven by blogs and their readers, which led directly to the principled stand Chris Dodd took yesterday in defense of the rule of law. This was not a process whereby some Beltway politician announced a campaign and then citizens fell into line behind it. The opposite occurred. The very idea for the “hold” originated among a few citizens, was almost immediately exploded into a virtual movement by tens of thousands of people, and was then made into a reality by a single political figure, Chris Dodd, responding to that passion by taking the lead on it.

It’s probably too late for Dodd to make a serious run at the nomination right now, but whoever wins it would be very smart to pick this guy as a running mate. The collaboration between our government and the telecoms in an effort to spy on us (which began before 9/11) in violation of federal law is the stuff of third-world dictatorships, not representative democracies. And the lengths that some Democrats have gone to avoid having to deal with this obvious problem demonstrates the power of special interests and the hold they have over both politicians and the media.

Sunday’s post lambasting the Discovery Institute (and our political and media elite’s insistence on taking them seriously no matter how wacky their proposals) has generated a number of emails from folks offering more detailed information on Discovery and its operations. It’s not pretty.

They may have cleaned up their “official” budget by now, but I’ve been assured that in past years at least 40-percent of the Gates Foundation’s roughly $1 million/year grant to the Cascadia Project went directly to Discovery to cover “overhead”. This included a $60,000 line item to help pay the salary of Discovery Executive Director Steven Buri, who I’m told has absolutely no expertise nor interest in transportation planning. Of course, I expect Discovery would deny using Gates Foundation money to subsidize its Intelligent Design campaign, but if they want to refute my allegations I challenge them to release the original budget documents (not some bullshit, made up spreadsheet,) or better yet, sue me for libel, so that I might use the discovery period to shed some light on the shady accounting Bruce Chapman has used to sucker the world’s richest man.

My point is that through his foundation’s 10 year/$9.35 million grant to Cascadia, Bill Gates — who frequently bemoans the state of our nation’s science education — is directly funding the operations of an organization dedicated to undermining the scientific method, and teaching creationism in our public schools. I mean… what the fuck?

But worse than the money is the undeserved credibility Gates and others grant Discovery by perpetuating the fiction that there is actual thinking going on in its tank. A real think tank starts with a problem and then goes about creatively devising a solution; propaganda mills like Discovery start with a solution, and then go about marketing the problem. And what is Discovery’s solution to the many challenges facing our nation in the 21st century and beyond? Here are the institute’s goals as enunciated in its infamous Wedge Document:

Governing Goals

• To defeat scientific materialism and its destructive moral, cultural and political legacies.
• To replace materialistic explanations with the theistic understanding that nature and human beings are created by God.

Five Year Goals

• To see intelligent design theory as an accepted alternative in the sciences and scientific research being done from the perspective of design theory.
• To see the beginning of the influence of design theory in spheres other than natural science.
• To see major new debates in education, life issues, legal and personal responsibility pushed to the front of the national agenda.

Twenty Year Goals

• To see intelligent design theory as the dominant perspective in science.
• To see design theory application in specific fields, including molecular biology, biochemistry, paleontology, physics and cosmology in the natural sciences, psychology, ethics, politics, theology and philosophy in the humanities; to see its influence in the fine arts.
• To see design theory permeate our religious, cultural, moral and political life.

That is what Bill Gates’ fortune is helping to fund.

Of course, the nut doesn’t fall far from the tree, and so despite its charade of scholarly objectivity, Cascadia has its own ideologically predetermined solutions. That’s why, for example, anti-light rail zealot Ted Van Dyk was so eager to give Discovery’s Bruce Agnew a rhetorical blowjob in today’s Crosscut. Van Dyk, Agnew et al have their own transportation plan, and it resolves around “governance reform” that would create a four-county, regional transportation commission, largely designed to dilute the power of Seattle’s pro-rail voters, while forcing us to fund their priorities, rather than our own. To Van Dyk’s credit, at least he’s honest about his cabal’s ultimate goal:

It would stress immediate priorities such as addressing the urgent Alaskan Way Viaduct and Evergreen Point Bridge, which are aging and structurally vulnerable. It would not stop light rail construction in place, but it would limit construction to a line running from Seattle-Tacoma International Airport to either Convention Place, Husky Stadium, or Northgate. Future funding would be focused more greatly on express bus, bus rapid transit, and normal bus service; dedicated transit lanes; HOV lanes; tolling; and selective repair and expansion of long neglected local roads and lifeline highways. Citywide trolleys definitely would not be part of the scheme.

That too is what Bill Gates’ fortune is funding.

Of course, I suppose there are those civic leaders who agree with Discovery’s “Big Bore” pro-roads/anti-rail agenda, just as I suppose there are those who support its goal of imposing a world view “consonant with Christian and theistic convictions”; I just wish they’d be honest about it. But for the rest, it is time to wake up and recognize Discovery for what it is, and stop granting credibility and money it has not earned.

If you’re running as a pro-life presidential candidate for the nomination of a party that has made overthrowing Roe v. Wade a moral and political litmus test, I’m guessing it’s not a good news day when a photo turns up of you attending a Planned Parenthood fundraiser.

Blue Mass Group has the photo and the details of Romney’s hypocrisy and prevarication.

Why is one always left with the sense of half a loaf from local reporting? Stories will go on for pages, even for days, without ever connecting the dots or providing a true context. They may beg the Big Picture — the overriding trend or practice that might actually make us care; instead we get the Little Picture. Crackers and cheese instead of the prime rib.

On The Times side, today’s banner is about a humble Sammamish vendor who makes fire-resistant t-shirts for the military. Seeking to expand his business from the Army to the Marines, the guy ran into InSport, a big corporation whose megadollars lobbied an “earmark” for t-shirt contracts — can you believe this — without a bidding process. Welcome to our post-Halliburton, no-bid-contract world…although the story doesn’t actually go all Big Picture like that. What we have instead is the reliance on polite talk for corrupt practices: bribes and kickbacks become earmarks and sole-source contracts. I for one would be interested in this guy’s suggestion about what to do, and how he might vote in 2008. Make me care…heck, make him care about the story.

Of course, even relatively tame investigations like this won’t happen under media consolidation, which is set to go forward today despite near-universal opposition at public hearings, in congressional hearings and from anyone with half a brain. In the hmmm dept., the story got A1 treatment from The Times and nary a Top 10 mention from the P-I. For today’s Reader Quiz and the chance to win a trip on the purple streetcar, can you tell me which newspaper is locally owned?

The P-I does, however, wring its hands over the closing of the Crocodile, days after anyone who cares knew about it (or suspected its imminency), the taxonomy of the scoop (I think it was The Weekly this time) somehow escaping the pit-bullish reportorial skills of the newspaper staff: “Word of the closure spread like wildfire Monday through the city’s music blogs…” Oh come on. I told my daughter about this last Thursday. And no mention of the Big Picture here either: The Showbox gets sold, the Croc shuts down. Other than being small crowded venues for up and coming bands but sitting on prime real estate prized by greedy developers, they have nothing in common.

The Times also takes a stab at relevancy with an update on the let-nature-run-its-course theory of disaster management. Dot not connected: Floods are hardly a “natural” occurrence, as The Times itself showed Sunday with the Chehalis debacle. “Flood risk is only going to get worse, scientists say. That’s because of two converging trends: climate change and development…” How about the trends of “insatiable greed” and “self-destructive stupidity”? Too Big Picture…

Finally, we bring you a new feature, inspired by Goldy’s and my debate yesterday, the Local Headline That Ran Elsewhere. Today’s donor is The New York Times, whose lead Business Day coverage, The Price of Growing Fuel, features a Portland brewery owner looking really disgusted at the skyrocketing price of barley. Also pinched by a hop shortage, some breweries are even going out of business, leaving us HAs with lamentably fewer places to cry in our beer. With that, we provide a radio segue only a true aural rebel like Goldy would ever use, to our weekly reminder for Drinking Liberally…Darryl, take it away!!!

CNN:

BAGHDAD, Iraq — U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice made an unannounced visit to Iraq on Tuesday and dropped in on the volatile northern Iraqi city of Kirkuk, a U.S. Embassy spokesman in Baghdad confirmed.

How long does it take before we stop calling them “surprise visits to Iraq”? At some point, if your Secretary of State has to sneak into the country just to check up on things, the “surprise” is more about the lack of security in Iraq and less about a fun winter visit to Mesopotamia.

[UPDATE]

A fun search to do.

Golly, gee! That’s a lot of surprises! One of these days I’d like to see our diplomats visit the sandy shithole place where all this success is happening without the flak helmets and evasive maneuvers.

Besides, when is the last time Condi has paid a “surprise” visit to someplace like Canada?

It’s Tuesday, so the FCC must be voting on media consolidation:

More on the topic.

Amnesty would stamp a congressional seal of approval on the Administration’s warrantless spying. If Congress immunizes the telecoms for past violations of the law, it will send the message that Congress approves what the Administration did. We would be aiding and abetting the President in his illegal actions, his contempt for the rule of law, and his attempt to hide his lawbreaking from the American people. Voting for amnesty would be a vote for silence, secrecy, and illegality. There would be no accountability, no justice, no lessons learned.

[…] Think about what we’ve been hearing from the White House in this debate. The President has said that American lives will be sacrificed if Congress does not change FISA. But he has also said that he will veto any FISA bill that does not grant retroactive immunity. No immunity, no new FISA bill. So if we take the President at his word, he is willing to let Americans die to protect the phone companies. The President’s insistence on immunity as a precondition for any FISA reform is yet another example of his disrespect for honest dialogue and for the rule of law.

It’s painfully clear what the President’s request for retroactive immunity is really about. It’s a self-serving attempt to avoid legal and political accountability and keep the American public in the dark about this whole shameful episode. Like the CIA’s destruction of videotapes showing potentially criminal conduct, it’s a desperate attempt to erase the past.

Via Crooks and Liars.

In perhaps the richest area of Washington state, a new type of road material is being tested.

the state Department of Transportation (DOT) is testing materials there designed to turn down the din of traffic.

The DOT calls them “quieter pavements.”

Those who drive the highway or live nearby call it a huge improvement: “People who live along 520 are like, ‘You are a godsend,’ ” Scott said.

Some folks complained about the proposed bridge replacement for 520, because it included a Mercer Island-style lid to shield the rich folks’ neighborhoods from the noise. “Blah blah rich people, blah blah fancy freeway” was the common refrain from my left ‘o’ center friends. Now I’m starting to hear “blah blah quiet asphalt.” Maybe with this new pavement we won’t have to spend so much on mitigation in the form of concrete lids and more on this new asphalt.

As an aside, I’m always amazed that this region is able to gin up so much general animosity from things. Should people in gigantic houses be subjected to freeway noise because they’re rich? Should anyone? Of course not.

The battle over the Alaskan Way Viaduct replacement will look like an Easter egg hunt compared to what’s in store on 520. The neighborhoods on both ends of the bridge have a lot in common- they’re rich, white, and can hire an army of lawyers. But I wouldn’t want the State of Washington forcing some awful freeway design through my neighborhood. (Oh wait, they already did try once already!)

I predict that this new technology is going to let a thousand flowers bloom. At least that’s my hope.

I cannot believe Goldy missed the headline about our latest constitutional crisis: “Of White House stonewalling on the investigation, Harman says, ‘We have a system of checks and balances and it’s broken. We’re in Constitutional crisis because of the arrogant view of some in this administration that they can decide what the policy is, write the legal opinions to justify that policy and be accountable to no one’.” Wow, might be a story there somewhere. Wait a minute…looks like the P-I missed it too. And The Times. Page after page of “The Nation” and “The World” and somehow our lying, lawbreaking administration didn’t merit a single line of coverage. Even searching on the phrase “constitutional crisis” in both papers yields scant hits in recent weeks (and nothing on tape destruction). Goldy, I forgive you! Sometimes it’s easy to miss the little ones, there’s so much real news out there…

We are, after all, in a noisy roads crisis. A1, top of the fold…and here you are complaining about no local news. For shame, Goldy, for shame….

UPDATE (– Goldy):
Of course, Paul, I was referring to paucity of local news headlines. But here’s one local news story I did miss, the one about the Seattle Symphony and its messy courtroom drama. But, um, isn’t it a little embarrassing to the folks at the P-I that they had to pick up this local story, day-old off the pages of the New York Times?

Andy Pettitte: “If what I did was an error in judgment on my part, I apologize.” If lying repeatedly about using performance-enhancing drugs until confronted by irrefutable proof in an official congressional document was a miscall, I am sorry. If continuing to lie — because, hey, other than that one little incident they got bupkus on me — is wrong, then go out and prove it buster. I’m a big league baseball player, not some athletic version of freakin George Washington. I can tell all the lies I want.

Roger Clemens: I am not a juicer. I am a victim of juicing culture. If juicing had not been so easy to do, if juicing were not such a snap to cover up, and if it hadn’t help me extend my career beyond believable limits and pull in the big bucks while non-juicing chumps labored in the minor leagues, I would never have juiced. Not that I’m saying I did juice, mind you, and you can print that last part. Like you did whenever I told you about my superhuman workout regimen and dedication to keeping my incredible body in shape, you bunch of drooling bozos. I can’t help it if you never consulted a single medical expert or physical therapist about the likelihood I was actually telling the truth instead of taking steroids. It’s not my fault you never once even suspected I was on the needle. I mean, give me a break. I can’t help it if I was born white the same as all of you.

Vancouver pig farmer: If skinning my victims alive somehow caused them pain or embarrassment, I deeply apologize. I only did it to get my jollies so I could continue to be a productive upstanding member of Canadian society. I had a farm to run, after all, and if grinding human flesh in with pig meat and selling it to supermarkets was an error in judgment, I am truly sorry. Although I did not believe it to be against the law, since these were despicable whore scum whose mere breathing presence was a blight on Christian beliefs, I felt bad about doing it and stopped right after the last one I killed. Now will you please absolve me of any illegal behavior and let me go scot free like you do all those big-name sports figures?

Apparently, non-union jobs pay less than union jobs. Who knew?

And, when you clear cut a steep mountain slope fronting onto a stream, you dramatically increase the chance of a devastating landslide during heavy rains. Oh. My. God.

Oh, and guns… don’t get shot by one. They can kill you. Same with pit bulls; sometimes they’re mean.

As for hard local news on a Monday morning? Now that would be news.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on News/Talk 710-KIRO:

7PM: Radio Kos: Church and/or State?
Rev. Forrest Church is an author and theologian, the son of former Idaho Sen. Frank Church, and the Minister of Public Theology at All Souls Unitarian Church in New York. In her review and interview posted today on Daily Kos, Joan “McJoan” McCarter describes Rev. Church’s latest book, So Help me God: The Founding Fathers and the First Great Battle over Church and State, as “an engaging, beautifully crafted and meticulously researched history of our nation’s first culture war over what role religion was to play in government.” Rev. Church and McJoan join me for the hour.

8PM: Will WA state ferries sink or swim?
An 80-year-old section of our state highway system was essentially allowed to disintegrate, when four steel-electric class ferries were pulled out of service due to serious corrosion. Washington State Transportation Commissioner Bob Distler joins me by phone for an update on the current plans to serve the effected routes, and a discussion what got us to this situation in the first place.

9PM: TBA
Liberal propaganda.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

I don’t want to top Goldy’s tasty diatribe below, a must read, so just quickly will point to Danny Westneat’s column about John Fox today in The Times. And don’t forget the Seattle Displacement Coalition’s big fundraiser tomorrow night, 7 p.m. in University Temple United Methodist Church.