Archives for April 2008

I’ll be a guest on KUOW’s Weekday Conversation today, sometime between 1:20 and 1:40PM, talking about taxes. Just thought you might want to know.

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens recently gave an extended interview to public radio station KDLG in Dillingham Alaska, and I thought you might enjoy his unique take on the subject of net neutrality:

[audio:http://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/stevensnetneutrality.mp3]

See, that’s what happens when you have an 85-year-old man attempting to dictate the future of the Internet. You can listen to the whole interview, unedited and in context, here.

I can’t take credit for the observation, but that won’t stop me from being the first to post on it.

We’ve all enjoyed poking fun at Dave Reichert’s ranking as the 401st most powerful member of the US House (though a respectable 73rd in earmarks), but we bloggers are a geeky breed, and HA regular “N in Seattle” (who blogs at Peace Tree Farm) recently observed how apt a metaphor Reichert’s rank rank turns out to be… at least in the parlance of HTTP status codes. For who amongst us (other than John McCain) is not familiar with following common error message…?

The request failed with HTTP status 401: Access Denied.

“Access Denied.” What better way to describe Reichert’s status in the corridors of power?

If there’s one thing Darcy Burner has proven over the past few weeks with her astounding success building consensus around the Responsible Plan to end the war in Iraq, it’s that she knows the password to getting things done. (And, I’m betting, she also knows her HTTP status codes inside out.)

It was a Beer Hall Putsch at Drinking Liberally Tuesday night, as us enviro-Nazis plotted the extermination of the BIAW.

Joining me (Goldy) in our communo-fascist treachery were Will, Carl, Lee and Seattle P-I columnist Joel Connelly. Topics of discussion include the BIAW’s bizarre hate speech and the consequences it might have for the candidates they support, Rick Steves’ reefer decriminalization crusade, and an update on Darcy Burner’s "Responsible Plan" to end the war in Iraq.

[audio:http://www.podcastingliberally.com/podcasts/podcasting_liberally_april_1_2008.mp3]

The show is 47:18, and can be downloaded here as a 43.4 MB MP3.

[Podcasting Liberally is recorded live at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. Special thanks to Darryl for producing the show, and Confab creators Gavin and Richard for hosting the site.]

BONUS PODCAST!!!
Last week’s podcast had some technical problems, and only through Darryl’s heroic editing was kinda-sorta recovered. And then I just plum forgot to post it. But now I have. So you can listen to it here.

The latest news out of Vancouver is that the plea agreement that would have sent Marc Emery to a fixed jail sentence and spared his co-defendants has fallen through:

But now there is a fresh wrinkle in the proceedings, one that even those most hostile to Emery’s cause should be able to see the absurdity of. Earlier this year Emery was able to arrange a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors that would see him accept a 10-year sentence on their charges, of which he would serve half. Under the deal his co-accused colleagues would go free and Emery would serve the first 45 days of his sentence in the U.S., after which he would be returned to Canada to finish his stretch in a more comfortable Canadian prison.

All that was needed was the agreement of Canada’s department of justice. But last week, after a month of pessimistic media reports, they gave a final “No.” The Americans insisted on guarantees against Emery being released before his five years was up, and such arrangements are forbidden in Canadian law, so no Canadian judge can order the application of such a sentence. That means Emery will have to go ahead with the extradition proceedings that were held over in the face of the plea-bargain, and face a possible life sentence down south. Catch-22: because Canada is too humane and liberal to apply the punishment that the Americans would like — a punishment Emery has voluntarily agreed to — there appears to be no option but to hand him over to the Americans without protection against much worse treatment!

Now it looks like the April 9 extradition case will happen as planned. Emery thinks the Canadian government could do more to protect him from America’s justice system, where he could spend his entire life behind bars for running a business that the Canadian government collected taxes on for years. If Marc Emery and his co-defendants end up on trial here, I think all of Canada should go on strike.

The latest installment in the ongoing saga of the Washington State Senate Republican Caucus (popularly known as “The Great Unraveling”), involves Sen. Cheryl Pflug (R-Delusional) who observers have described as increasingly erratic since her divorce… even for a Republican. I’d ask her legislative assistant about it, but apparently she’s no longer on the job.

Rumors are flying that Pflug’s assistant is enjoying paid administrative leave after enduring sustained “verbal abuse” during the recent legislative session, while others say that Pflug has outright fired her LA. I guess the only thing tougher than being a Republican state senator these days is working for one.

Just out from Congressional Quarterly:

Democrats in the state of Washington are increasingly better positioned to keep the Governor’s mansion and to take over a key House district in the state’s most competitive contests this election cycle.

Gov. Christine Gregoire and 8th District candidate Darcy Burner came within a razor‑thin edge of their opponents in their last contests. But analysts now say that the Democrats have upped their chancing of winning as the state GOP party faces structural problems and GOP efforts to appeal to the state’s large number of moderate voters has been hampered by their strong conservative base.

CQ Politics is now changing its rating of the Washington state Governor’s race from No Clear Favorite to Leans Democrat and Washington’s 8th District rating from Leans Republican to No Clear Favorite.

And how has Darcy Burner done it?

In the 8th District, which encompasses the Eastern suburbs of Seattle, analysts say former Microsoft executive Burner’s organization, fundraising, and her views on the Iraq war have boosted her campaign. […] Burner has made the Iraq war, which is highly unpopular in the district, a centerpiece of her 2008 campaign. She initiated an effort to create a plan to end the war. After six months of consultation with retired generals and national security experts, she was joined by nine Democratic challengers in the release of a formal plan March 17. It reiterates many of the recommendations of the Iraq Study Group and calls for removing all U.S. troops from Iraq (without proposing a specific timeline), enlisting allies to help stabilize Iraq, and improving America’s international reputation.

Dave Reichert is now one of only three Republican incumbents whose race is rated a toss-up, and a lot of the credit goes to Darcy’s leadership in creating a consensus behind the Responsible Plan.

And how’s that plan progressing these days? The Politico devotes a ton of space to it today, reporting:

As congressional Democrats plot strategy for next week’s Petraeus-Crocker appearances, a growing number of Democratic congressional challengers are coming together around something called the “Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.”

The plan’s author, Washington House candidate Darcy Burner, said that her original goal had been to have 50 candidates sign on to the plan by September. Just 2½ weeks into its life, the plan has nearly that many, picking up six more in the past few days to bring to the total to 48.

Um… as of 1PM today, 52 Democratic challengers had now signed on to the Plan. And counting.

MEDIA ALERT:
Darcy taped an interview with Rachel Maddow today, which will be aired on her show at either 3:30 or 4:30 PM Pacific. Tune in to AM-1090 or stream the audio live from their website.

Steve Benen at Crooks and Liars:

Maybe it’s just me, but I tend to think this observation might resonate with voters: John McCain could be denied coverage under John McCain’s healthcare plan.

Elizabeth Edwards, whose cancer is no longer curable, was pointed in her criticism at a meeting of healthcare journalists:

Elizabeth Edwards, the wife of former Democratic presidential contender John Edwards, said she and John McCain have one thing in common: “Neither one of us would be covered by his health policy.”

Edwards lodged her criticism of the presumptive Republican presidential nominee’s proposal Saturday at the annual meeting of the Assn. of Health Care Journalists.

Under McCain’s plan, insurance companies “wouldn’t have to cover preexisting conditions like melanoma and breast cancer,” she said.

McCain has been treated for melanoma, the most serious type of skin malignancy. Edwards in 2004 was diagnosed with breast cancer, and announced a year ago that it had returned and spread into her bones, meaning it no longer could be cured.

McCain’s plan focuses on offering new tax breaks for individuals who buy their own health insurance. But critics say the Arizona senator’s proposal avoids giving insurers requirements on whom they must cover and how much they may charge.

John McCain, who has received low-cost, taxpayer-funded government healthcare for his entire life, is content to leave millions of Americans uninsured. This is not surprising. (McCain is known for his robust lack of interest in domestic policy.) He used to be one of those Republicans who looked for pragmatic solutions to domestic problems, and even lent his endorsement to this book, in which Democrat Jim McDermott and Republican Jim McCrery came to an understanding on healthcare reform. Both men, liberal and conservative, agreed that any healthcare plan that didn’t cover everyone was a waste of time and money. I hope John McCain could come to that understanding too.

A study, written for U.S. Special Operations Command, suggested “clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers.”

Information strategists can consider clandestinely recruiting or hiring prominent bloggers or other persons of prominence… to pass the U.S. message. In this way, the U.S. can overleap the entrenched inequalities and make use of preexisting intellectual and social capital. Sometimes numbers can be effective; hiring a block of bloggers to verbally attack a specific person or promote a specific message may be worth considering.

Jesus… sometimes it seems that everybody is making money off of blogging except me.

One of these days I suppose we’ll read something negative in the national media about the Responsible Plan to end the war in Iraq, but this piece in The New Republic sure ain’t it:

What–a thoughtful plan for Iraq? Written by aspiring Democratic House members? Campaigning in highly competitive districts? Believe it.

Led by Darcy Burner, who’s gunning to represent Washington’s eighth district, ten Congressional challengers recently released a 36-page proposal called, simply, “A Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq.” More than 40 candidates have now signed on to the document, which is a cross between a think tank report and a political platform.

On the face of it, this doesn’t seem like a big deal. For the past two years, Democrats have been offering plan after plan to end the war in Iraq. But this one is different.

[…] Beyond just being good policy, though, the plan exhibits a unique understanding of the legislative branch’s role in foreign policy. Too often, candidates running for Congress make very specific proposals about foreign policy that are far outside of their purview. […] “A Responsible Plan” would instead serve as the congressional corollary to a Democratic presidency. It doesn’t include elements over which Congress has little control, but it does push for 15 pieces of existing legislation, which focus on issues such as improving healthcare for a new generation of veterans and phasing out our reliance on military contractors such as Blackwater. Only the president can end the war in Iraq, but Congress can do its share by focusing on institutional repair and funding the right programs.

[…] In the end, the “Responsible Plan” is just a plan. It isn’t going to solve the slew of problems the United States will face over the next few years, as it begins to dig itself out of Iraq. But it is a good first step. And the fact that 48 Democratic challengers are willing to sign on to something this detailed, without the DCCC jumping up and down and telling them to stop, is a good sign that a consensus seems to be building in the Democratic party around a set of specific national security ideas.

I know I’m beginning to sound like a broken record, but something special is happening here. “Consensus seems to be building,” and around a plan created by Darcy Burner. That’s the kind of creativity and leadership 8th CD voters deserve, and that’s the kind of creativity and leadership they’ll get by electing Darcy to Congress.

Join us at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally for an evening of politics under the influence. We meet at 8:00 pm at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E—some of us show up a little early to sample from the terrific menu.

Tonight’s theme song is from The Clash’s album Cut the Crap….“Dirty Punk”.

If you find yourself in the Tri-Cities area this evening, check out McCranium for the local Drinking Liberally . Otherwise, check out the Drinking Liberally web site for dates and times of a chapter near you.

Apparently, former Republican party chair Ken Eikenberry is endorsing the candidacy of Democrat Chris Gregoire…

UPDATE

Postman has the details:

Eikenberry, once the GOP’s candidate for Governor and a stalwart of the moderate wing of the party, was ostracized by activists when he endorsed the “Simple Majority” campaign last year.

Read the whole thing.

Gov. Gregoire has signed the Working Families Credit, perhaps the most significant piece of legislation passed this session in terms of its real world impact on the 350,000 Washington families who will qualify for this tax break.

A national study released by the Institute on Taxation and Economic Policy (ITEP) found that Washingtonians with the lowest income pay five times as much as the wealthiest in taxes, as a share of their income.

“The Washington state tax structure is singularly regressive. It is unacceptable for the poor to pay a significantly higher proportion of their income in taxes than the wealthy,” said William H. Gates, Sr., Chair of the Washington State Tax Structure Study Committee. “The Working Families Credit will help bring equity to our state tax system. It’s an investment we really need to make.”

How about that, a tax break for working families for a change, instead of wealthy special interests with high priced lobbyists. It’s a small step toward addressing the most regressive tax structure in the nation… but a step in the right direction.

Finally, the media establishment is starting to wake up to the batshit crazy ways of the BIAW. Well, at least the Seattle P-I’s editorial board is starting to wake up, if only to rub a little sleep out of their eyes…

The Building Industry Association of Washington is influential. It’s also looking bizarre.

In the group’s March newsletter (no April Fool’s prank; area blogs started picking it up last week), there’s a full-page piece headlined: “Hitler’s Nazi party: They were eco extremists.” The writer makes a concession mid-ramble that Nazis were insanely racist but hurries to say that global environmentalism is “an amalgam of Nazism and communism.” Sure.

Elsewhere, BIAW President Brad Spears tries to draw a supposedly natural tie between mainstream environmentalists and eco-terrorism, especially home burning. “The older folks in the mainstream enviro groups,” he writes, “silently applaud this new and novel approach: If you build it, we will burn it.” Wow.

The newsletter is led by a piece hailing Democrats’ defeat of a “builder-hating bill,” on consumer protections to homebuyers. But sprinkled throughout the issue are adoring references to Republican Dino Rossi’s gubernatorial race. So maybe this hot talk is to gin up Rossi support. As readers learn, Gov. Chris Gregoire is possessed of “hate for the homebuilding industry.” There may be hate around, but the BIAW’s finger is pointed the wrong way.

The BIAW is “bizarre”…? Yeah, I guess. But that’s an awfully timid way to describe the BIAW’s unique brand of far-right extremist wing-nuttery hate-mongering. But at least that’s better than the Seattle Times, whose last mention of the BIAW was in a piece on the upcoming judicial races, and as usual, made them out to sound downright respectable:

Tom McCabe, head of the politically active Building Industry Association of Washington, said his organization considers the court races a high priority, right below the governor’s race. He said his group likely will be active in one or more court races, using public disclosure and property rights as two main issues.

“We’re really interested in the court, and the field is still shaking out,” he said. “If the right candidate emerges, I believe BIAW will participate, most likely in the Fairhurst seat.”

Yeah, sure… the BIAW is “politically active” and they “participate” in the process. And… um… they’re also fucking insane! In fact, they’re so insane that they have absolutely no fear of showing off their insanity in public. And yet our media and political establishment continue to grant them the same credibility normally afforded… you know… sane people. I mean really… the Times once saw fit to write an editorial condemning me for “successfully plac[ing] the phrase ‘horse’s ass’ into dozens of family newspapers” (as if I held a fucking gun to their heads), and yet the BIAW, one of the most powerful and influential “politically active” organizations in the state, equates environmentalism to Nazism, and stormwater regulations to Stalinist butchery… and all we hear are crickets chirping. Nice to know our state’s self-proclaimed paper of record recognizes the real threat to reasoned public discourse when they see it.

And believe you me, the BIAW’s violent rhetoric is intended as a threat, and they fully understand the potential consequences of pumping up the anger. One of these days somebody like me is going to get the shit beaten out them by somebody like them — they’ll be waiting for me late at night with baseball bats, or worse — and when that happens our media elite, who allowed the BIAW’s dangerous rhetoric to go unridiculed, unchallenged and unchecked for so long, will be just as culpable as batshit crazy bastards like Tom McCabe and Mark Musser.

As for elected officials like Rep. Mark Ericks (D-Bothell) Rep. Doug Ericksen (R-Whatcom), whose smiling photo from a BIAW awards banquet appears in the same issue as that crazed, hate-filled anti-environmentalism rant, it is either time for them to renounce the BIAW… or it is time for voters to renounce these officials at the polls, regardless of party.

UPDATE:
A reader corrects me via email:

A quick correction for you, though – the photo in the newsletter is Rep Doug Ericksen (R-Whatcom), not Rep Mark Ericks (D-Bothell). Although Rep Ericks was mentioned several times throughout the newsletter re: homebuilder bill.

My bad. Though I think Rep. Ericks has an obligation to renounce the BIAW as well.