Archives for March 2011

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was in Edinburgh, Scotland.

This week’s is related to a TV show or a movie, and before you grab the pitchforks and hunt me down, this image is probably 2-3 years old, so that’s a clue. Good luck!

I was so busy following the disaster in Japan that I couldn’t even crack open my bible. So let’s just ask the believers to explain how a compassionate God could do something like this.

Discuss.

Yesterday, legislators around the state held town hall meetings. I’ve lived in the 5th Legislative District for a year now – and expect to live here for many more – and thought it was a good time to actually hear what my state representatives are up to. I showed up at 10am at the Maple Valley Community Center. Glenn Anderson and Jay Rodne (my two Republican state reps) were just starting to speak to a crowd of about a dozen people.

The meeting started off with Anderson talking about the budget difficulties. As you’d expect, Anderson and Rodne believe that our budget problems are related to Democratic overspending (something that Goldy has repeatedly pointed out is not true). One particularly interesting accusation that they made was that the cuts to the budget this year were specifically put in areas that would be most painful (health care and education) in order to scare people into raising taxes in a November referendum. Rodne seemed to believe that we could’ve balanced the budget merely by cutting L&I and the Department of Ecology. That sounded like the equivalent of folks saying that we can eliminate the federal budget deficit by cutting NPR and arts funding, but I’ll let my wonkier friends evaluate that claim.

Anyway, Rodne then asked for a show of hands on who in the room wanted to solve the budget problems by raising taxes. My hand went up and about half the room uneasily raised their hands half-way up with some uncertainty. Rodne then asked me if I was a firefighter (what?). I said no. He asked if I was a public union worker. I said no again, somewhat perplexed by his questions.

The meeting continued on. The political affiliation of the attendees wasn’t overly obvious, except for one gentleman wearing a Republican pin on his jacket. I was expecting it to be largely a conservative crowd, however it was probably closer to 50-50. Either way, it was a small crowd. At one point, the older couple in front on me, who had both worked in the public sector, spoke up to challenge some of the prevailing anti-union rhetoric coming from the front of the room.

The husband (who actually was a firefighter) got somewhat agitated with Rodne in what was the only really tense part of the entire meeting. I spoke up to defend him – primarily because Rodne was attempting to claim that the budget problems we have aren’t related to nationwide problems in the economy, which is absurd. Rodne once again asked if I was a firefighter. This time I more fully elaborated on the fact that I’m a private-sector employee. In response to me, Anderson actually put together a somewhat rational response.

Rodne then asked the room if they agreed with what was happening in Wisconsin. I saw only 2 hands go up, although a gentleman in the back spoke up saying he didn’t understand what Rodne was asking. It’s possible that some in the room thought Rodne was referring to what the protesters were doing, but Rodne seemed genuinely surprised not to see a roomful of hands go up.

Well, my son is waking up now, so I’ll try to wrap this up. At the end of the meeting, I went up to speak to Anderson about my pet pieces of legislation, the drug law reform measures currently making their way through the legislature. I asked him if he was going to support the legalization bill, which would add hundreds of millions of dollars to the state budget, lower crime, and protect families. He first copped to having been a ‘head’ back in the day and said he could potentially support the medical marijuana bill, but couldn’t support HB 1550. I asked him why and his response was that there were soccer moms, and “that gateway thing”, and because meth was really, really bad. So after an hour long town hall of two Republican legislators accusing Democrats of playing politics instead of dealing responsibly with the state budget, it took me roughly 15 seconds to get Anderson to do the same.

Time change for Tea Baggers: set clocks back 400 years. So 2 AM tomorrow becomes 1611, and don’t be late for witch drownings/church.

— Jon DeVore via Twitter.

(Man…I sure wish Jon would post his stuff—even really short stuff—on HA again!)

Ann Telnaes: Gov. Huckabee lays an egg.

ONN: Small town throws pride parade for openly gay resident.

The Republican War on Workers:

• Young Turks: Gov. Walker in a panic!
• Thom: Democrats fight back in Wisconsin.
• Newsy: WI Republicans threatened with recalls.
• Ed: Recalls go forward.
• GritTV: Sen. Sherrod Brown on workers fighting back.
• Tina Dupuy: Florida Governor brutal budget cuts.
• Maddow: Wisconsin can repeal Walker’s anti-union bill (via Crooks and Liars).
• Thom: Latest from the trenches from the Republican War on Workers.
• Ed: An affront to Democracy.
• Young Turks: WI GOP Rep admits goal is union busting.
• GritTV: Laura Flanders on when is it time for a general strike:
• Thom: The G.O.P. War on Workers goes to Michigan.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Mark Fiore: How to be a political pundit.

Disaster in Japan:

• Disaster in Japan (via OneGoodMove).
• Young Turks: Earthquake and Tsunami.
• Newsy: 8.9 magnitude earthquake.
• Cenk: Earthquake sped up earth’s rotation by 1.6 microseconds.
• Tsunami warnings: If Republican budget cutters have their way, we won’t get them (via Crooks and Liars).
• Maddow: Nuclear power plant emergency in Japan.
• Cenk: Nuclear disaster looming.

Newsy: NASA study finds ice caps melting at a much faster rate.

Lawrence O’Donnell: What Newt mean to say.

Maddow: Republican fake family values.

UBC Comedy: Fuckin Tea.

Newsy: Illinois executes the death penalty.

Obama announces Gary Locke for Ambassador to China:

Sam Seder: Republicans to America: Poor kids don’t have enough pain.

The Republican War on Muslims:

• Ann Telnaes: Rep. King holds hearings on U.S. Muslims.
• Young Turks: Report destroys Bill-O’s Muslim hearings defense.
• Cenk: The truth about King’s hearings.
• King doubles down on Muslim radicalization hearing.
• Jon on Rep. King (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf on Muslim Jihad hearings.
• GritTV: Maya Wiley on what’s missing at the King hearings.
• Young Turks: Rep. King busted on Muslims & Mosques comments.
• Cenk: Rep. Peter King’s ties to terrorists.

Stephen: Angry at Huckabee (via Crooks and Liars).

Newsy: Republicans vote to kill net neutrality.

Young Turks: Newt had affair because he loves America.

Obama welcomes The Chicago Black Hawks.

ONN: Oklahoma doctors can legally pretend to give abortions.

Jon: Indecision 2012–weak Republican contenders (via OneGoodMove).

The Great NPR Controversy:

• Young Turks: NPR under attack by Wingnuts.
• Newsy: The NPR flap.
• Tina Dupuy: Tea Party racists.
• Young Turks: Juan Williams charges of racism.
• Newsy: NPR CEO ousted.
• Tina Dupuy: NPR Under Attack, a conversation with Dave Saldana of Free Press.

Whodathunk: Evangelicals denounce Glenn Beck as a “New Age” Mormon because of new feel-good book (via Crooks and Liars).

Young Turks: Why Republicans cut education.

Newsy: College student’s voting rights at risk.

White House: West Wing Week.

Ann Telnaes: Obama signs executive order to close for indefinite detention at Gitmo.

Cenk: Newt just loved America too much:

GritTV: Paris Hatcher on keeping an eye on anti-abortion antics.

Newsy: The Dalai Lama retires from political role.

Young Turks: Will Glenn Beck be fired?

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

There are a couple of things happening this weekend that you might consider being part of.

• First, there will be a bunch of legislative town hall meetings in communities all over the state tomorrow. This is a chance to offer your state Senator or Representatives some advice, criticism, and feedback. The full schedule for tomorrow and other dates is here.
• National Radical Women invite you to celebrate 100 years of International Women’s Day and female-led uprisings, strikes and protests from 1911 to 2011. There will be a brunch at 1:30 and a main event at 3:00. (Door donation $2.00, Brunch donation $9.00). The event is at New Freeway Hall, 5018 Rainier Ave. S. Seattle. (More information.)
• There is a Project AWARE underwater clean-up of Golden Gardens Park and Shilshole Marina, Saturday, March 12, 2011, 8am – 2pm.

Are there others? Leave a comment.

After the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, the National Weather Service has issued a tsunami warning for the West Coast. You can see the forecast here, but fair warning, I have no idea what it means.

The Wisconsin Republicans have rammed through a bill that strips collective bargaining rights from public employees. The new legislation only allows collective bargaining for wage increases up to the rate of inflation. In other words, public employees will only be allowed to bargain over how much of a pay cut they will take each year.

Isn’t that special.

There are questions about the legality of the conference committee meeting. The brief meeting itself is well worth watching:

A complaint has been filed, which would be unlikely to void the law, but give another cause, and one based on violations of the law, for the campaigns to recall G.O.P. Senators.

And there are also questions about the constitutionality of the legislation. Regardless of the legal challenges, the legislation will probably become, and stay, law. At least it will until Wisconsin no longer has a Teabagger for a Governor with a G.O.P. controlled Senate and Assembly.

Following the Senate vote last night, the cowardly Republicans were whisked away in a semi-commandeered Madison Metro bus, while protesters surrounding the bus screaming, “Shame!” and “Cowards!”:

Recall campaigns are underway for six the eight Republican Senators currently recallable. The first phase is a 60 day signature collection period that has been going remarkably well—roughly 15 percent of the needed signatures had been collected by last weekend.

Greg Sargent has an early release of polls conducted by SurveyUSA in the eight districts:

When asked if they would vote for Hopper or someone else if a recall election were held right now, 54 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 43 percent they’d vote for Hopper.

In Kapanke’s district, the numbers were even worse: 57 percent said they’d vote for someone else, versus only 41 percent who said they’d vote for Kapanke.

It gets even more interesting. The poll was taken yesterday, before last night’s events, and fifty-six percent of voters in Kapanke’s district, and 54% of voters in Hopper’s district, said if their Senator voted for Walker’s plan, it would make them more likely to vote for someone else.

Finally, by all measures, the fundraising for the recall campaigns has been nothing short of astonishing:

As of this morning, according to Ben Smith, the Progressive Change Campaign Committee and Democracy for America had raised $750,000. As of this afternoon, MoveOn’s ActBlue page for the recall reports around $860,000 of donations from around 27,000 people; the Daily Kos page reports around $340,000 from around 12,500.

As Goldy pointed out, all it takes is money.

At least I think this is live:

Illinois has ended their death penalty, making them the 16th state to abolish it. And there’s no reason Washington can’t go next. It’s too late in the legislature this year, but the problems in Illinois are the problems in every state. And while we aren’t offing people at the rate of Texas or Florida, it’s still a stain on us that we do it at all.

So we have a chance to say we believe as a state that we are going to have more compassion, more humanity, more decency than the people on death row. We can say no to an irreversible punishment and yes to our humanity. It’s time to end the death penalty in Washington, and make ourselves number 17.

Rob McKenna
1125 Washington Street SE
PO Box 40100
Olympia, WA 98504-0100

Dear Rob,

You must be as excited as I am with Newt Gingrich’s conference call today.

Newt Gingrich told supporters on a conference call “we are leaning toward a yes” on a presidential run, CNN has learned.
[…]

Also interesting: Gingrich expects former Sen. Zell Miller (D-GA) to be a co-chair “once we put the campaign together.”

Brilliant…adding Zell Miller to the campaign is just the ticket to refocus the press on something besides Newt’s messy marriages and adultery in the service of his country. It’ll inject some crazy-ass excitement into Newt’s campaign.

Gingrich’s bold bipartisan move is a helpful precedence for your forthcoming gubernatorial campaign. You, too, can rise above partisanship while injecting some crazy-ass excitement into your own campaign.

May I suggest making Lou Guzzo your campaign chair?

Lou did it for Dixy Lee Ray; he can do it for you. He has lots of really good ideas.

Lou will know how to keep people from thinking too much about your anti-labor agenda and your lawsuit to strip affordable health insurance from millions.

And it’ll be just plain fun…so think about it.

Yours verily,

Darryl
Horsesass.org

Here is what we learn about today’s arrest of a suspect in the MLK-day bombing from the Seattle Times (my emphasis):

An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested east of Spokane. Agents, including a bomb expert from Quantico, Va., were preparing to search a house where others associated with the suspect were living, the source said.

The suspects are apparently affiliated with white supremacists.

Interesting…these two paragraphs imply that there was something about today’s arrest—perhaps a statement from that FBI source—that linked the suspect up with a white supremacist group.

I wanted to know more about the evidence for the connection besides simple geographic proximity. And what about the other of the “suspects.” Only one person was mentioned as being arrested.

So I searched other media sources for more details. Here is what I find in the AP account (my emphasis):

KHQ-TV of Spokane reported that federal and local law enforcement officers had surrounded a home near Colville, Wash., about 80 miles northwest of Spokane. Two T-shirts found inside the bomb were tied to that rural area.

Additional details were not immediately available.

The FBI has said nothing about possible suspects, but public opinion from the beginning focused on some of the white supremacist groups that have brought notoriety to the region in the past three decades. The area once served as headquarters for Richard Butler’s Aryan Nations, whose members were lured by the small number of minorities.

The AP piece implies that the affiliation with white supremacist is purely conjecture based on geographic proximity to such groups.

A few minutes after that the same Seattle Times article was edited and lengthened. Here is the revised version of the excerpt from above (my emphasis):

An FBI source in Washington, D.C., said one man was arrested Wednesday outside a home near Colville, Stevens County. Agents, including a bomb expert from Quantico, Va., were preparing to search a house where others associated with the suspect were living, the source said.

The suspect is believed to be affiliated with white supremacists, the source said.

Look at all that editing of the first paragraph. And now there is only one suspect believed affiliated with white supremacists and the FBI source in Washington made the claim about affiliation. (Here is a before and after image.)

Fascinating…I’ve not come across an article in the MSM being live edited to such an extent. But now I won’t feel quite so bad when I make small corrections to my posts on Horsesass. And maybe I don’t need to footnote my changes, strike-through my errors, or even fess up after making correctinos. Hell…I can just compose live.

The Seattle Times has set the new standard.

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 214 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Last night, I facilitated the Cannabis Defense Coalition’s March Public Meeting. It was the largest public meeting I can remember, primarily because of the continued erosion of the medical marijuana bill that’s been making its way through the legislature. A number of amendments have been tacked onto the bill that have drawn concerns from patients to health care professionals to business owners to even some city governments. A few of the issues involved (in no particular order):

– Extra language added to section 301 would give the state incredible power to target health care professionals who provide health care authorizations. These restrictions were designed to target what’s become seen as the stereotype of the “pot doctor”, but they go way too far in several other ways and would actually endanger both patients and the numerous health care professionals who provide legitimate authorizations. For example, if a patient was diagnosed with cancer by one doctor and referred to a specialist, that specialist could come under fire for authorizing medical marijuana.

– Arrest protection was removed for people who aren’t signed up in a state registry database, which might not be completed for several years. This means that individuals with valid authorization forms in their possession could still be arrested. If this isn’t fixed, it’s likely that the various constituents lobbying for this bill will demand that the bill be removed. This is clearly a deal-breaker.

– An added clause regarding medical marijuana advertising is also very controversial. UW law professor Stewart Jay says it’s unconstitutional, and several members of The Stranger were present last night, as this issue could significantly impact their advertising business.

– State cooperative grows are now limited to only 3 people and 45 plants. The original bill had the limit of 25 people and 99 plants (99 plants keeps it under a particular federal plant limit). This provision is more important for the rural parts of the state where a dispensary may not be nearby. One person suggested 6 people and 90 plants, which I thought was an acceptable compromise. Others might still think that’s too few people.

– There was a lot of confusion about whether dispensers and growers would be protected if a system for licensing them wasn’t set up by July 1, 2012, as specified in the bill. This concern was brought up by Steve Sarich, and few other people in the room seemed aware of this issue. It seems to be a conclusion he arrived at by reading through the fiscal note for the bill. The lobbyist for the Washington Cannabis Association, Ezra Eickmeyer, was also in the room and seemed to think it was worth looking into.

– In the original bill, state pre-emption made it so that localities would only be able to implement zoning restrictions around dispensaries, but couldn’t outlaw them entirely. That’s been changed to allow local areas to establish their own limits. In California, it’s done this way and it’s led to a fair bit of chaos. In fact, Eickmeyer noted that a number of cities were in favor of the original language and are working closely with proponents of the bill to make sure we get this right.

– Language that imposed penalties on law enforcement or other government officials for divulging the private information in the state patient registry was removed. There were concerns that without a deterrent, it would lead to violations.

Also mentioned last night was something that I haven’t seen reported in the press. HB1550, the full legalization bill that would allow for regulation and sale to adults in the state’s liquor store system, was advanced in the House by Speaker Chopp marking the bill NTIB (“Necessary To Implement Budget”). Only a handful of people were aware of this, so I don’t have any more details, but it’s a good sign that Speaker Chopp is starting to recognize the value that a bill like this has at a time when budgets are tight.

UDPATE: Eli Sanders was present at the meeting and posts up a recap.

UDPATE 2: Audio of the meeting is available here.

President Obama is selecting current Commerce Secretary and former Washington state Governor Gary Locke to be the next Ambassador to the People’s Republic of China:

The official says that “as a Pacific Rim governor and Commerce Secretary he helped lead an historic increase in trade with China. As Commerce Secretary, Locke has delivered on the president’s goal of doubling U.S. exports in the next five years (up 17 percent in 2010), led the push for patent and export control reforms and presided over a Census count that came in 25 percent under budget – returning more than $2 billion to the Treasury.”