Archives for October 2008

Underestimate us at your peril…

Here’s what too many people still don’t understand — there’s nothing loony about the netroots. This isn’t fertile territory for the McKinneys and Kuciniches of our party. This is fertile territory for the Howard Deans of our party — sensible, pragmatic progressives who aren’t afraid to be Democrats. Why? Because we’re the nation. We’re not clustered in DC and NYC, we’re spread out over all 50 states, and we know better than anyone what it takes to win in our own backyards.

We didn’t rally around Webb, Tester, Schweitzer, Trauner, Brown, Massa, Burner and so many other moderate Democrats because they were little Kucinich clones, but because they were perfectly suited for the states and districts they seek to represent. It’s that simple. Howard Dean wasn’t an anomaly. He was our ideal.

Of course, there are fringe elements to every movement, but there is nothing loony about the netroots, which is merely a revitalized, grassroots progressive movement, distinguished by its highly effective use of new technologies to achieve greater efficiencies in organizing, messaging and fundraising.  And while our style and tactics may sometimes come across as unconventional, our political agenda is not.

No, what our critics miss is that the netroots are above all an exercise in political pragmatism, as embodied in our unofficial rally cry:  “More and better Democrats.”  Our emphasis on more Democrats is a simple recognition of reality:  a two party system in which the electoral success of the Democratic Party currently provides the clearest path toward a more progressive political agenda.  And our emphasis on better Democrats is a recognition that in terms of ideology, competence and ethics, our party is far from perfect.

But our motto also represents a pragmatic compromise… an effort to strike a balance between the need to improve the Democratic majority, and the need to expand it.  And that compromise is reflected in the candidates we embrace, on a district by district basis.

How well we’ve managed to strike this balance, we’ll learn in another week.

Speaking of partisan hacks, it looks like the stock market isn’t the only thing slumping these days…

All Washington’s major daily newspapers saw drops in circulation during the six months ended Sept. 30, according to figures from the Audit Bureau of Circulations, in Schaumburg, Ill.

The Seattle P-I’s average weekday circulation fell to 117,572, down 7.8 percent. The Seattle Times’ average weekday circulation fell to 198,741, down 7.7 percent. Sales of the Sunday paper, which contains editorial content from both newspapers, fell to 382,332, down 9 percent.

It is interesting to note that while circulation is falling at somewhat the same rate at both the Times and the P-I, the Times lost about 16,600 subscribers over the past six months compared to only about 10,000 for the P-I.

Of course, both of our dailies regularly draw over two million uniques to their respective websites each month, or about 75,000 a day.  By comparison, HA has recently been averaging about 100,000 uniques a month.

From Roll Call’s article about the WA-08 race between Democratic challenger Darcy Burner and Republican incumbent Dave Reichert, R-Wash.:

Burner said Reichert’s advertising firm, Media Plus, has made what she alleges amounts to an illegal loan of as much as $1 million to buy airtime in this last week before Election Day.

“From my perspective, when they are breaking the law and then use that money to go up on television to say that I don’t have a degree that I did in fact earn, do I think it’s getting nasty? Absolutely. But not on our side,” Burner said. “They will do anything to hold onto this seat, and they don’t care about the law or the truth.”

There’s still (barely) time to throw in one last bit of turkee to help Burner counter this ridiculous and deceptive bit of Seattle Times/RNC/Reichert bullshit. Democrats are hopeful of having a big night in one week, and Republicans are desperate to hang on to WA-08 as their potential losses pile up. Darcy has done as much as anyone to challenge the Bush status quo and having her break their back by defeating Reichert would be incredibly sweet.

I know everyone is probably pretty tapped out, but if you can, go visit Darcy. As we’ve seen, every small contribution adds up, and I’m guessing last minute media purchases are vital as this race goes down to the wire. Don’t mean to be theatrical, but if you’re going to donate one last time to Burner, do it this instant.

So let me get this straight… when Dave Reichert and the WSRP shop around the bullshit notion that Darcy Burner is lying when she sometimes describes her Harvard degree in computer science and economics as a “degree in economics,” the fair, balanced and impartial editors at the Seattle Times decide that’s worthy of a front page story.  But when a judge determines that the evidence implicating Rossi in the Buildergate scandal—a fundraising scam the PDC has already determined to be illegal—is sufficient to compel Rossi to testify under oath just days before the election… they bury that story in the B section?

And they have the nerve to call me a partisan hack?

Whether that proves harmful or helpful to Rossi remains to be seen, said Matt Barreto, a University of Washington political-science professor. “It could be a game-changer. But it’s not necessarily a nail in the coffin for Rossi. It depends on how he responds, what comes out and what the media coverage is,” Barreto said.

I don’t doubt that most reporters attempt to be objective, but if you believe in these final days of the election that the Times isn’t writing its headlines, placing its stories, and otherwise shaping its coverage so as to favor the candidates it prefers, well then, I’ve got an 8-lane 520 bridge to sell you.

Obama	McCain
100.0% probability of winning	0.0% probability of winning
Mean of 376 electoral votes	Mean of 162 electoral votes

Yesterday’s analysis showed Sen. Barack Obama leading Sen. John McCain by 376 to 162 electoral votes, on average.

Today we got 35 new polls covering 19 states. The net result of all these new polls is…not much. Obama holds firmly to his lead today.

A Monte Carlo analysis utilizing 100,000 simulated elections shows Obama winning each and every mock election. Obama receives (on average) 376 to McCain’s 162 electoral votes. The analysis suggests that Obama would have a 100.0% probability of winning an election held today.

Detailed results for this analysis are available at Hominid Views.

Methods are described in the FAQ. The most recent version of this analysis can be found on this page.

Obama spokesman Bill Burton utterly dismantled Fox Noise political operative Megyn Kelly in the clip above. Priceless. And surreal. Is there anyone in this country who still believes some hairdo chanting “fair and balanced” means Fox is actually fair and balanced? Talk about doublespeak. Her efforts to shake Burton were another EPIC FAIL, just like everything else the McCain campaign has tried.

I don’t know how these Fox Noise employees can lie so repeatedly without shame, but that’s what they do. They’re not journalists, they’re paid political prostitutes. There’s no reason for an Obama administration, should he keep his lead and win, to give them wide access any more than they would give wide access to a supermarket tabloid or Hollywood gossip show. Covering the White House comes with a certain amount of professional integrity, which Fox Noise employees clearly lack. (Like duh, or they wouldn’t work for Fox Noise.) Frankly, the National Enquirer has more journalistic bona fides than Fox Noise, come to think about it.

Change is coming. There are many serious problems facing this country, but I’d imagine Congress could make time for hearings on media oligarchies at some point. I’d like to see this sorry episode played for some Fox Noise executives, perhaps they could enlighten some members on how this sort of blatant campaigning for John McCain constitutes journalism.

And no, pointing at the “EM ESS EM” and bleating “liberal bias” isn’t going to cut it any more. The truth hurts, and the truth is biased, as they say. All the lies, all the corruption, all the incessant demagoguery and nastiness that is the modern Republican Party has now caught up with what was once the party of Lincoln, leaving it and its allies exposed to face the full wrath of the American voting public.

And yes, News Corpse is entitled to First Amendment protection, just like supermarket tabloids and gossip shows. You can basically spew any old nonsense that strikes your fancy when it comes to public figures. That doesn’t mean anyone else in the traditional media or government has to treat Fox Noise and Rupert Murdoch’s little stable of hacks at the Wall Street Journal editorial page with anything but the contempt they so richly deserve.

It’s all one big top-down Republican media machine, and while they’re pressing all the levers marked “scary” and “socialist” and such, it’s not working. That’s why they’re so frightened and angry. One can only imagine the self-loathing some of these MiniTru workers must feel as the Ponzi scheme and the big con game fall apart at the same moment in history.

The Fox Wall is threatening to come down on their sorry apparatchik heads. Time to head for the dachas and party like it’s 1991.

(Props to Jed L. at Daily Kos for catching the video.)

What the headline says.

That’s good news for Boeing, good news for the machinists, and good news for the region.  And in a gubernatorial election where Dino Rossi has pegged much of his message on exploiting voters’ growing sense of economic insecurity, I suppose that’s marginally good news for Gov. Chris Gregoire.

Happy voters make for happy incumbents.

Joel Connelly does a good job explaining why Tim Eyman’s attack on red light cameras in I-985 would likely end up killing and maiming people.

These are not the cash cows Eyman claims they are, with most of the fines actually going to pay for the cost of installation, operation and maintenance.  If I-985 passes, and these local revenues are directed to the state general fund, the cameras will be removed, as there will be no way to pay the contracters who operate them.  And drivers will once again be free to run lights at these dangerous intersections.

So I-985 means no red light cameras and no red light camera revenue to pay for promised congestion improvements.

Of course, that’s not the only promise Eyman’s made that he cannot deliver.  Timmy’s done a good job hyping up his initiative’s promise to open HOV lanes to single occupancy drivers during non-peak hours, planting visions of zipping through traffic in many voters’ heads, but it turns out that at least on 520, rather than opening the HOV lane to all comers, I-985 will likely result in the lane being closed off entirely.

According to former WSDOT head Doug McDonald, there’s just no way to safely and efficiently bring three lanes of traffic down to two as 520 approaches the floating bridge westbound; attempting to merge three full capacity lanes down to two would actually create longer backups and ultimately slow down traffic more than eliminating the third lane altogether.

Not being a transportation engineer myself, I checked with a WSDOT official who confirmed off the record that this issue has been studied, and that yes, shutting down the westbound HOV lane would be a likely response to I-985’s passage.

Yet more unintended consequences from an Eyman initiative.

The latest Washington Poll of 600 registered voters, conducted October 18 to 26, shows Gov. Chris Gregoire leading Republican challenger Dino Rossi by a 48-43 margin.  When leaners are included, Gov. Gregoire’s lead increases slightly to 51-45.  That’s the second public poll in a row to suggest the race may be breaking toward Gov. Gregoire after months in a virtual deadlock.

Other findings from the poll:  Barack Obama leads John McCain 55-34, I-1000 leads 56-38, I-1029 leads 65-20, Prop 1 leads 50-43, and I-985 remains a toss-up at 45-43.

In the interest of contributing a little fairness and balance to HA’s coverage of Prop 1, the proposed Sound Transit expansion, I am posting this audio message from Kemper Freeman Jr.

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

Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens, the longest serving Republican in U.S. Senate history, has been convicted on all 7 counts of making false statements on his Senate financial disclosures, involving hundreds of thousand of dollars in unreported “gifts” from friends and political backers.

Stevens was already in a tough reelection battle with Democratic challenger Mark Begich, and I think most analysts would expect his conviction to cost him the election.

Either way, Stevens’ long political career has come to end; if he refuses to resign, the Senate will expel him as a convicted felon.  And under a new Alaska law, Gov. Sarah Palin does not have the power to appoint a replacement.

UPDATE:
Gov. Palin sets the record straight on her relationship with Sen. Stevens, arguing that he “needs to be heard across America” so that Alaska can “lead the rest of the US.”

Nothing up on the SurveyUSA website yet, but the word is that their latest poll has Democratic challenger Jeff Merkley leading Republican incumbant Sen. Gordon Smith, 49-42.  This would be a huge pick-up for the Democrats, in race that most experts considered to be a longshot just 10 months ago.

The stock market, home prices, payrolls, consumer spending and just about everything else may be down… which of course means guns sales are up!

Several variables drive sales, but many dealers, buyers and experts attribute the increase in part to concerns about the economy and fears that if Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois wins the presidency, he will join with fellow Democrats in Congress to enact new gun controls. […] Gun purchases have also been climbing because of the worsening economy, which fuels fears of crime and civil disorder, industry sources and specialists said.

Yup, because nothing keeps you and your kids safer than a firearm and a chamber full of live ammo:

An 8-year-old boy died after accidentally shooting himself in the head while firing an Uzi submachine gun under adult supervision at a gun fair.  […] The boy, Christopher Bizilj of Ashford, Conn., was with a certified instructor and “was shooting the weapon down range when the force of the weapon made it travel up and back toward his head, where he suffered the injury,” a police statement said.

Personally, I loved riflery when I was a kid at overnight camp, and always looked forward to the annual “gun show” when we would get a chance to put aside our 22 caliber target rifles and shoot up some cans with a few handguns and other cool weapons.  But the instructors never, ever let us put more than one bullet in the chamber at a time.

An 8-year-old with a loaded Uzi?  If this is the type of idiocy we see under the supervision of a “certified instructor” just imagine all the accidents waiting to happen in the wake of this new surge in gun sales.