Archives for February 2011

This video from CNN’s Ben Wedeman is a beautiful sight that many folks have waiting a long time for. Embedding is disallowed, but it shows a massive crowd in Benghazi, Libya celebrating their victory over Gaddafi’s hired mercenaries and other loyalists this past week. Wedeman compares the welcome he received to an American soldier arriving in Paris in WWII. It gives you an idea of how much it matters to countries like Libya when oppressive rulers aren’t able to operate in the dark.

Unfortunately, the capital Tripoli is still being fought over, with paid mercenaries terrorizing the city. But with much of the country already lost and many of his loyalists and allies turning on him, it’s just a matter of time before we see similar celebrations in Tripoli.

Rick Santorum has identified the true problem with America. He is launching his own crusade to stop the spread of Medieval smears (via Politico):

Rick Santorum launched into a scathing attack on the left, charging during an appearance in South Carolina that the history of the Crusades has been corrupted by “the American left who hates Christendom.”

Really…it’s about time somebody had the cohoes to not just attack, but to launch into a scathing attack on the evil leftist, Crusade-hating, eleventh through thirteenth century history revisionist element in our society.

“The idea that the Crusades and the fight of Christendom against Islam is somehow an aggression on our part is absolutely anti-historical,” Santorum said in Spartanburg on Tuesday. “And that is what the perception is by the American left who hates Christendom.”

I know!!! I can’t tell you how often I’ve had to correct Christendom-hating leftists on their shallow understanding of the crusades. Their ignorance of the benevolent nature of the Crusades is leaving its stain on America.

I mean, it’s no wonder Congress has been unable to pass a budget. And that so many Obama appointees are stuck in the Senate confirmation process. Crusade confusion has caused banks to fail. And some say it played a big role in the Enron scandal.

He added, “They hate Western civilization at the core.”

An no greater an expression of hate is there than the spread of misinformation about the Crusades. Thank you Mr. Santorum for cleaning up that stain.

That’s the problem.

That, and The Scientists’ pernicious work on human-animal hybrids….

This guy is sooooooo, sooooooo totally ready for the Oval Office!

Now that Goldy isn’t the head honcho here any more, I think I’ll pick on him today. Over at Slog, he posts:

Following the success of last year’s local initiative outlawing red-light cameras in his hometown of Mukilteo, Eyman’s taking his latest for-profit/anti-government gimmick on the road. This year, he’s cosponsoring copycat measures in Bellingham, Monroe, Wenatchee, and Longview. But while Eyman provocatively characterizes the cameras as the “crack cocaine” of city budget writers and “taxation-­by-­citation, just another way for government to pick the pockets of taxpayers,” a definitive new study conducted by the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (IIHS) finds that red-light cameras save lives.

Comparing crash statistics between 1992–1996 and 2004–2008 in the 99 US cities with populations above 200,000, researchers found a 35 percent reduction in red-light fatalities in cities that implemented red-light-camera programs, versus a 14 percent reduction in those that did not.

But the cameras’ benefits actually proved to be much bigger. When all crashes at signaled intersections were tallied, not just those due to red-light running, total fatalities dropped 14 percent in cities with cameras, while rising 2 percent in cities without.

This should be fairly obvious, but the evidence described in the third paragraph doesn’t exactly bolster Goldy’s assertion. It’s proof that there are a number of other factors causing declines in vehicle fatalities other than what’s happening at red light camera intersections. These could be related to safer car construction, fewer miles traveled, changes to traffic patterns, or something else. If there’s a reduction of 14 percent in red light crashes in cities that didn’t implement red light cameras, then there are another explanations for the decline. And that explanation could perhaps also explain why there was a gap in the overall statistics from city to city.

Here’s a page from the National Motorists Association that criticizes other aspects of the study, and another page from them that details out some studies which have shown that red light cameras increase accidents.

The National Motorists Association is an organization with a strong bias in this matter, and they often play up the increase in rear-end collisions that are seen with the implementation of red light cameras, while ignoring the decreases in side-angle crashes (which are more likely to cause fatalities) from the very same studies. In the end, I think there’s a case to be made that red light cameras provide some benefit, although I find this study to be completely unconvincing in the effort of making that case. In fact, this part at the end of their press release gives you an idea of how little their numbers are actually telling them and how they understand them even less:

Results in each of the 14 camera cities varied. The biggest drop in the rate of fatal red light running crashes came in Chandler, Ariz., where the decline was 79 percent. Two cities, Raleigh, NC, and Bakersfield, Calif., experienced an increase.

“We don’t know exactly why the data from Raleigh and Bakersfield didn’t line up with what we found elsewhere,” McCartt says. “Both cities have expanded geographically over the past two decades, and that probably has a lot to do with it.”

But Chandler has easily been one of the fastest growing cities in the United States over the past 20 years as well. Why did it experience such a dramatic decrease in vehicle fatalities while Bakersfield and Raleigh saw increases? There are certainly reasons for it, but it should be evident that red light cameras aren’t one of those reasons. When looking at red light cameras and trying to figure out whether or not they work, any study that isn’t looking at specific intersections and comparing data isn’t really worth much in this debate.

Via The Ave:

Seattle PI’s Joe Connelly nails it:

How did teachers, nurses and child-care workers find themselves in a bullseye? It’s about power — an underlying campaign by corporate wealth to assume unchallenged command of American democracy.

Government workers did not cause the Great Recession. Nurses did not strip value from 401(k) plans. Schoolteachers did not torpedo Wisconsin school districts’ investments. Care workers did not render WaMu stock worthless, or employees in Washington jobless.

Public employees have not asked for bailouts and then demanded big bonuses as an entitlement. While hidebound at times, their unions have agreed to forgo benefits.

As numerous observers have demonstrated with actual numbers, the actions by Wisconsin Republicans are not about austerity, “saving” the state, or fiscal responsibility. They are a pure Republican attack on public employee unions. The public employees have largely agreed to the fiscal measures in the legislation. They have not agreed to the non-fiscal demands of the legislation–measures that would seriously undermine their rights to collectively bargain.

The public employees offered these concessions even as the Legislature and Governor have engaged in blatant corporate welfare:

Gov. Scott Walker has just signed into law $117 million in corporate tax breaks; the Badger State’s immediate shortfall totals $137 million.

Is it a coincidence that anti-public employee legislation has been introduced nearly simultaneously in Wisconsin, Indiana, and Ohio? I doubt it. Rather I suspect Republicans have taken more from the 2010 elections than the electorate was offering.

Republicans “felt the love” in the 2010 election and proceeded to turn that into a mistaken cocky arrogance. The fact is, in 2010 the electorate was consumed by restlessness and unease over a prolonged nation-wide recession that hit the country under the Bush administration. But political unease almost always swings against the party in power–such is the natural antiphon of politics.

By reading their gains as an endorsement for their war on the middle class, Republicans badly miscalculated. They have overreached. I strongly suspect it will not go unnoticed by the people.

Protest is in the air…as is the stench of anti-labor, union busting, troglodytes. This calls for violent revolution drawing upon the blood of patriots to strike mortal blows to the breasts of the oppressors conversations with beer. So please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.. We start at 8:00 pm, but feel free to show up even earlier for dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 211 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Wherever tyrants suppress free speech, free association, liberty, the pursuit of happiness, the people will revolt. It’s happened again today.

No…it isn’t another revolution in the Middle East. This time it’s that other tinderbox of a region known as the Midwest where the people’s fight against tyrannical despots has spread to another state (via Politico):

In a move straight out of the Wisconsin playbook, Indiana Democratic lawmakers fled the state today in a bid to kill a proposed right-to-work bill ahead of a vote.

Citing a source, the Indianapolis Star reported that Democrats “are headed to Illinois, though it was possible some also might go to Kentucky.”

Wisconsin’s Democratic senators have been in Illinois for days, depriving Republicans the quorum needed to vote on Gov. Scott Walker’s legislation to roll back collectively bargaining rights for state workers.

No word yet from Gov. Mitch Daniels about activating the National Guard….

Update: Has Gov. Walker (R-WI) killed the Internet for protesters? What will Mitch Daniels (R-IN) have to do to top that? Declare that he’ll die a martyr?

Update II: Another all-out assault on public employees! And the protests spread to another State in the unstable Midwest region of America. This time it’s Ohio.

Protests continue today.

Moderate Republicans are trying to put together a compromise. Even so, the Republicans may start passing non-fiscal legislation (that doesn’t require a quorum) as a threat bargaining tactic:

And one of those [bargaining] chips may be a bill to require voters to show ID at the polls – a change Republicans have long wanted and Democrats fear will disenfranchise voters.

Senate Majority Leader Scott Fitzgerald (R-Juneau) on Monday said Republicans who control the Legislature may bring that bill to the floor if Democrats continue to boycott Senate sessions for much longer. Democrats went to Illinois Thursday to prevent passage of the bill on union rights.

Of course…the Republicans can pass that legislation anyway, and they no doubt will, so it doesn’t seem like much of an incentive.

Wisconsin’s Republican Senators need to quit being whimps. They need to think BIG. Given Walker’s credentials as a good God-fearing Republican extremist (e.g. on reproductive rights), Republicans should use the absence of the Democrats to make a few adjustments in Wisconsin.

Here are some “bargaining chips” the Senate could work on, inspired by fellow Republicans around the country:

• Allow people to carry guns at State universities and colleges.
• And open up the airports to guns while they are at it.
• Require all adults to own a gun.
• Outlaw oral and anal sex between consenting adults in their own bedrooms.
• Pass an “unborn child” defense act, that would justify the murder of abortion doctors.
• Allow doctors to lie to women about the health of their fetus.
• Redefine rape as “forcible rape”.
• Criminalize same-sex marriage.
• Require doctors to show women an ultrasound of her fetus within two hours before receiving an abortion.
• Pass legislation that requires brown people to carry papers proving citizenship.
• Strip “anchor babies” of their citizenship.
• Pass a law to require presidential candidates to present a birth certificate.
• Declare State sovereignty.
• Create an official Wisconsin state currency.
• Make a state holiday around John Birch Society founder Robert Welch’s birthday.
• Opt out of Obamacare.
• Pass a resolution apologizing to BP.
• Require schools to teach a 6000-year-old earth “theory” in biology class.
• Declare global warming beneficial.
• Create an internet kill switch for the governor to use in the event of civil unrest.

And that’s the week one agenda.

Oh, one other thing…rename the state Wississippi.

Update: Oops…I forgot one other of piece of legislation for the Republican’s gonzo week agenda: Weaken child labor laws. This legislation might spark controversy among the Wisconsin Republicans. Some lawmakers would still support Wississippi; others would push for Wiscongladesh.

Last week’s contest was won by 2cents. It was the convenience store in New Jersey that served as the location for the movie Clerks. Extra credit for milwhcky for reminding me that I’d posted it once before.

Here’s this week’s (from somewhere in Washington state), good luck!

Proverbs 31:6-7
Let beer be for those who are perishing,
wine for those who are in anguish!
Let them drink and forget their poverty
and remember their misery no more.

Discuss.

Patrick O’Callahan of the Tacoma News Tribune has an editorial about public sector unions. Because daily newspapers in this state exist mostly to serve the powerful, he doesn’t like them.

In Wisconsin, the backlash against government unions has taken the form of a GOP drive to repeal collective bargaining for most public-sector employees. Similar drives are happening in other states where Republicans recently won governorships and gained control over legislatures.

In Washington in 2 years it may take the form of Rob McKenna if we’re not vigilant. But of course these types of editorials serve as a test run for their pro McKenna propaganda. So here’s my test run of opposing that bullshit.

This would not be happening if the unions had the support of the public. Many of those unions have forfeited that support by clinging to lush compensation packages at a time when workers in the private sector – including union members – are enduring the toughest economy in generations. A time when public services are being scaled back ruthlessly while generous labor contracts have continued on autopilot.

Yes, if only teachers agreed to live in poverty for the privilege of long hours ensuring the next generation has the requisite skills to survive as adults. If only firefighters would pay for all of their own health care for the honor of saving your life and property. If only police and prosecutors would demand extra, uncompensated work because putting criminals away is just so inherently rewarding. If only doctors and nurses were demanding to pay for their own training. Then perhaps the editorial writers in this state would support them.

Too many examples are found in Pierce County. Although the cost of living has been flat, some union leaders have adamantly rejected pleas to reopen their contracts to reduce “cost-of-living” raises that considerably exceed the actual rate of inflation.

That’s how it’s supposed to work in a healthy economy. Wages are supposed to rise beyond inflation. What do you want all public employees to make, inflation adjusted, the same as they were making in the early days of the Oregon Territory? As if there shouldn’t have been any raise in the standard of living for public employees ever? Come on. That attitude is why we have public employee unions.

County workers saw their compensation increase by 23 percent between 2005 and 2009, when their private sectors saw 14 percent. They’re doing quite well. Yet their leaders last year refused a request to roll back another round of raises, though the rollback would have helped spare county services.

This is such bullshit. This editorial and the thousands of others we’ve read and will read about public sector unions in all the papers across the state never seem to have any suggestions to bump up those numbers for private sector employees. It’s always cited as fucking gospel that the private sector numbers are a fact of nature as immovable as a boulder in your path. But if you believe these numbers and want public and private employees making roughly the same, then you need to figure out how improve the pay of private sector employees. It seems to me that the numbers you’re throwing around are a pretty damn fine case for more and stronger private sector unions.

It’s been a very violent day in Libya, with reports that dozens of anti-Gaddafi protesters have been killed in Benghazi, the country’s second largest city and the largest in eastern Libya. Just as in Egypt, Gaddafi has cut off the internet and is trying to limit communications. Even worse, Gaddafi appears to have paid for mercenaries from other African countries to come in and shoot at the protesters.

Unlike with Egypt, there are far fewer international journalists there to cover this, and while most of the activity on Twitter seems to be focused on eastern Libya, there are fewer reports of protests in the capital of Tripoli. It’s hard to know what to make of this, but with the dictators just to the west and east of Gaddafi already deposed, I’m starting to get hopeful that he’s next. Couldn’t happen to a bigger asshat.

The Seattle Times editorial board has come out with a very strong statement in support of ending marijuana prohibition. Their editorial from yesterday begins:

MARIJUANA should be legalized, regulated and taxed. The push to repeal federal prohibition should come from the states, and it should begin with the state of Washington.

This argument was made loud and clear by numerous folks in Olympia last week. State representatives, prosecutors, police officers, judges, doctors, and ordinary Washingtonians testified why it’s urgent for us to start treating marijuana the way we treat alcohol and pass HB1550. The Seattle Times reiterated those main points: the current policy wastes enormous public funds at a time when we can least afford it, it can unnecessarily derail opportunities for young people, it erodes our civil liberties, it fosters distrust of law enforcement, and it greatly benefits Washington’s gangs. The fact that it still continues is an extraordinary example of how propaganda and fear has been used to paper over what has been one of the biggest policy failures in America over the past 100 years.

It’s not clear what will happen to HB1550, as notorious drug warrior Christopher Hurst (D-31) remains in charge of the House Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness Committee, but his extremism in pursuit of this disastrous policy is becoming more and more isolated in the general public. In the most recent survey conducted by the Economist, 58% of Americans support the idea of treating marijuana the way we treat alcohol. Only 23% disagreed. These numbers represent a sea change in public opinion on this topic, and one that too many of our politicians have not kept up with.

If the legislature doesn’t do it this session, the voters will do it on their own. Sensible Washington is gearing up for another shot at the ballot in 2011, and bigger drug policy organizations have their eye on a 2012 run. The choice that politicians have to make right now is not about whether marijuana should be treated the same as alcohol. The public has already made up their mind about that and every year that goes by just sees more and more young voters who support it and fewer and fewer older voters who don’t. The choice that politicians have to make is whether to set up legalized markets the way they want them to function, or to deal with legalized markets created by voter initiative.

Ann Telnaes: Another Haley Barbour controversy .

Young Turks: G.O.P. Rep.’s ‘Olive Complexion’ controversy.

Roy Zimmerman: “To the Victims of This Tragedy We Send Our Thoughts and Prayers”:

Mark Fiore: Military math boot camp.

Young Turks: Poll shows FAUX News viewers are most frightened of Muslims.

Boehner’s Boner:

• Newsy: “So be it”.
• Young Turks: Boehner is okay with Americans losing jobs.
• Ann Telnaes: Read Boehner’s lips.
• Pelosi blasts G.O.P.’s “so be it” attitude (via DailyKos).

Newsy: Government shutdown looming.

The past or the future?

Jon: I like big cuts (via OneGoodMove).

Funny or Die: NPR pledge drives.

The Republican War on Workers:

• Thom: WI Governor declares war on workers.
• Newsy: Wisconsin workers protest.
• Democracy Now: On Wisconsin, Part I.
• Democracy Now: On Wisconsin, Part II.
• Young Turks: Does Obama watch network news?’>WI Governor holds jobs hostage.
• Rep. Ryan: It’s like Cairo has moved To Madison (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• GritTV: Protests for workers spreading.
• Maddow: Wisconsin & union rights.
• Ed: Gov. Walker (WI) is lying about budget crisis.
• Pap: What Wisconsin has learned from Cairo.
• Thom with The Nation‘s John Nichols: 35,000 strong and more to come.
• Wisconsin protesters on FAUX News: “FAUX Lies” (via TalkingPointsMemo).

ONN: Report finds troubling rise in teen uranium enrichment.

Newsy: Facebook accepts LGBT partnerships (thereby undermining the very fabric of the intertubes).

Obama in Portland: Out-educating the competition (8:45).

Jon: Pyramid scheme (via OneGoodMove).

Young Turks: How Dan Savage destroyed Rick S******m.

The Republican War on Women:

• Cenk: The G.O.P. hit job on Planned Parenthood.
• GritTV: Killing doctors by redefining personhood.
• O’Donnell Thank you Jackie Speir.
• Rep. Jim McDermott on anti-women Republicans:
• Newsy: The South Dakota “Kill an abortion provider” bill?
• Democracy Now: G.O.P. bill targets abortion and family planning, Part I
• Democracy Now: G.O.P. bill targets abortion and family planning, Part II
• Democracy Now: G.O.P. bill targets abortion and family planning, Part III
• O’Donnell: Palin attacks Michelle Obama over breastfeeding.
• Cenk: Michelle Bachmann on breast pumps (and other batshit crazy Republicans).
• O’Donnell: Bachmann goes after Michelle Obama on breast pumps.

Daily Show: The QOsby Show (via DailyKos).

Pap: The U.S. Chamber of Commerce is spying on you.

Ann Telnaes: Obama takes on defense spending.

Young Turks: Nut case Glenn Beck gets his Google hate on.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

This photo was taken last month on the University of Washington Campus. I was on my way to a class which limited our conversation to about a minute.

The man was elusive about his purpose. He seemed sincere and said the sign wasn’t mean to be ironic. He wanted to know what the sign meant to me, but he denied this was research (like for a psychology class or something). And, no, this wasn’t some sort of performance art. He said nothing to suggest it was a religious thing.

He wanted to tell me all about the meaning of the sign, but said it would require a longer conversation (and, I presume, some thinking). I never saw him again.

Anyone have a clue?