Archives for April 2011

Maddow: Michigan Gov. thinks Democracy is a problem (via Crooks and Liars).

Thom: Who is organizing the Republican War on Workers?

G.O.P. budget plan having some difficulties at home.

Mitt on Hanging Obama:

Ed and Pap: Boehner is corporate America’s bagman.

GritTV with Thomas Frank: What is happening in the town hall meetings this year?

Ann Telnaes: Privatizing Social Security.

Thom: Republicans organize like KKKrazy to lie.

The Carnival Barker:

• The Donald drops a few F-bombs.
• The Donald’s obscenity laced rant unbleeped (via Crooks and Liars).
• Sam Seder: Trump thinks outsourcing to China is bad…but his own clothing line is made there.
• Stephen: Obamas and The Donald (via Crooks and Liars).
• Ed and Pap: Trump is the New Village Idiot along with his birfer friends
• David Letterman on The Donald (via Slog).
• Young Turks: Another racist comment from Trump.
• John King: Debate with The Donald.
• One proud Carnival Barker (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Liberal Viewer: NBC Trump abortion privacy question made both look bad?
• Tweety: Trump’s sorry-ass voting record.

Cenk: Introducing potential radical G.O.P. candidate Rick Santorum.

Ann Telnaes: Sen. Kyl amends the record…

Oklahoma…apparently NOT OK:

• Young Turks: Oklahoma KKKrazy.
• Oklahoma Rep.: Women and Blacks ‘Lazy’.

White House: West Wing Week.

ONN: Troubled Democrats to undergo party counseling.

Newsy: Ummm…check your watch.

Sam Seder: Atlas bombs.

Long Form Birferism:

• Obama: “Ahh…Here.”
• Sam Seder: The Birth Certificate
• Thom wears a tin foil hat for World Net Daily
• Young Turks: Lawrence O’Donnell gives the Birfer Queen The Boot
• The Froot Loop® Brigade play with their new toy (via Crooks and Liars).
• Mark Fiore: The United States of Reality TV.
• Deathers ask, “Is Obama alive?”
  
• Newsy: Did Obama put the Birfer controversy to rest?
• Thom does Orly Taitz
• Maddow: Donald Trump and the racist roots of ‘birtherism’.
• O’Donnell savages the Birfer Queen.
• Tweety & friends: Obama wins
• Baratunde Thurston’sheartfelt message.
• Ed and Pap: Republicans suffer from shared psychotic disorder.
• Tweety: ‘Pitch-Fork’ White Nationalist Pat Buchanan says ‘Obama is affirmative action all the way’
• Thom goes to town on Philip J. Berg, Birfer Esquire.
• Cenk: Does the G.O.P. have a racism problem?

Sam Seder: Gov. Chris Christie revives the Xanadu Project.

Cenk: G.O.P. = The Gas and Oil Party.

Young Turks: Another racist comment from Trump.

Greenman: Climate denial crock of the week…the “trick”:

Ann Telnaes: The Republican’s trickle down economics.

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

Well, it’s official. Governor Gregoire has vetoed much of the medical marijuana bill, leaving patients and providers across the state at greater risk of arrest and with less access to the medicine that their doctors have authorized them to have. To call this a failure of leadership is an understatement. To knowingly lie in order to promote bad policy is a failure far greater than that of mere leadership. It’s a failure of character and integrity.

I used to be somewhat regretful over my vote for Dino Rossi in 2004. But as clownish and smarmy as Dino Rossi is, having him serve a term as governor would have been a good wake-up call for the progressives in this state. What we’ve just seen from Governor Gregoire is what happens when you blindly support the candidate from your party no matter how incompetent they are. I’m rather convinced at this point that we’d be in a lot better shape on a variety of issues in this state – from education to health care to transportation to tax policy – if Rossi had won that razor-thin election in 2004 and Democrats had a chance to do some soul-searching and run someone who had potential to be a good governor in 2008 (when it was a much easier go for Democrats everywhere).

Kudos, Seattle Times: I didn’t think Civil Disagreements could get sillier. So, it’s a bit surprising that ostensible liberal Joni Balter and ostensible guy who can grow a mustache Ryan Blethen are the new faces of the thing (I guess, maybe Lynn and Bruce are on vacation). Anyhoo, here’s their first, (I guess) one. It’s super current.

Ryan, I was happy to see the Seattle City Council decided to replace the old ticky tacky Fun Forest with the new Dale Chihuly glass art pavillion [sic] at Seattle Center. I know you feel much [sic] differently. Let me make my case.

I know the vote happened on Monday, and this is a weekly feature. So, yes, this is the first time they can talk about the vote that happened. But wouldn’t people who believe they influence the debate want to talk about something before it happened? We’ve known it’s going to happen for quite some time. In fairness, I just wrote about the NLRB’s Boeing decision, so timeliness isn’t everything, but on the other hand fuck Joni Balther and Pedostach (PS, new sitcom: Balter and Pedostach, Cop show, maybe, should be a good pitch meeting). And, yes, now that you mention it, I do have questionable facial hair.

To me, Seattle Center is neither a greensward-like Central Park, nor a place completely frozen in time. The Fun Forest was truly enjoyable while it lasted. But as an attraction, the fun and the forest were slipping; rent became a problem. The whole center needs an upgrade. In the old days, the Center was an eclectic collection of venues and it remains so today. Chihuly glass adds to the ballet, opera, theater, EMP, the fountain and everything else.

Look, it was fun, it was enjoyable, it was great for children. But it’s no glass whatever. Anyway, here’s my favorite paragraph:

I really like Chihuly and am not bothered by the fact that he shows and — gasp, sells — his stuff in Vegas, Venice and many other places. He is a one-of-a-kind talent who has trained many disciples.

Gasp. Straw men feel so offended that he sells his art in Venice! And he’s super unique, but has many, many, many people who he’s trained to be just like him.

Anyway, then Ryan Blethen says Joni is right, but he’ll be sad. Civil Disagreements, folks.

The top-dog Carnival Barker has a little memory problem (via The Smoking Gun):

Despite Donald Trump’s claim this week that he avoided serving in the Vietnam War solely due to a high draft number, Selective Service records show that the purported presidential aspirant actually received a series of student deferments while in college and then topped those off with a medical deferment after graduation that helped spare him from fighting for his country, The Smoking Gun has learned.

And after boasting about his unforgettable memory of the period…

“I actually got lucky because I had a very high draft number. I’ll never forget, that was an amazing period of time in my life.”

He went on to recall, “I was going to the Wharton School of Finance, and I was watching as they did the draft numbers and I got a very, very high number and those numbers never got up to.” The word “deferment” was not mentioned by Trump during his chat with the morning show hosts on WNYW, the Fox affiliate in New York City.

…he got it wrong…. Way wrong.

In fact, the December 1969 draft lottery occurred about 18 months after Trump graduated from the University of Pennsylvania, where he studied business at the Wharton School.

The story of Trump’s numerous deferments is interesting, particularly since he has, apparently, forgotten about them entirely when pressed on his lack of military service. It is his final deferment, disqualification after a medical examination, that caught my attention:

October 15, his classification was switched to 1-Y, which was given to men deemed qualified for military service “only in time of national emergency.”

The 1-Y classification came a month after Trump underwent an “Armed Forces Physical Examination,” according to Selective Service records, which note the results of the exam as “DISQ.”

Here is the extract of Trump’s Selective Classification record provided to The Smoking Gun following their TSG records request (click for larger image):

What caught my attention was the line labeled “Entries from Remarks Column” that says, simply, “YXX”.

Huh? Would that be YXX as in one extra X chromosome? The condition, called Klinefelter syndrome, is not uncommon–it occurs in somewhere from 0.1% to 0.2% of males. Aside from having an extra X chromosome, these are symptoms of Klinefelter syndrome:

• Abnormal body proportions (long legs, short trunk, shoulder equal to hip size)
• Abnormally large breasts (gynecomastia)
• Infertility
• Sexual problems
• Less than normal amount of pubic, armpit, and facial hair
• Small, firm testicles
• Tall height

Hmmm….

Among other things, the syndrome increases ones risk of attention deficient hyperactivity disorder, autoimmune disorders, depression, and learning disabilities (including dyslexia).

Hmmm….

So, while I cannot be certain the “YXX” note really means Trump was disqualified because he suffers a chromosomal disorder, it would explain the medical disqualification. And his lousy memory!

And the only way to know for sure is for Trump to—you got it—release his medical records. Otherwise, we will never know whether the Republican’s latest star candidate has a chromosomal disease….

– People keep telling me that McGinn is obsessed with Highway 99, but when I read his Facebook, Twitter, and official blog, I’m not sure it’s even the highway project he spends the most time on.

– Those green bike lanes look pretty snazzy.

– Greatest open letter ever.

– Shorter Pudge: The fact that all those people didn’t believe Obama was really American proves that there’s something bad. About Obama.

– Is HA Back on track for everyone? I haven’t noticed anything funky on the front page/comments the last few days, but the first time I tried to post this, WordPress ate it.

I’ve gotten several email alerts about a raid against a dispensary in Spokane. The CDC was doing their “how to prepare for a raid” training today in Spokane, so a number of people left to witness what was going on. I’ll update this post as I learn more.

UPDATE: Here’s a news report. Listening to some live audio from someone traveling to the scene of one raid with Steph Sherer from Americans for Safe Access. He’s reporting that there’s already a crowd gathered and some local news present. There are reports of some other raids, but no confirmation on which dispensaries are targeted.

UPDATE 2: Three dispensaries have been raided so far. Follow the #spokaneraid hashtag on Twitter for the latest updates.

Yesterday I was joking with a friend about how relieved I was to learn that Obama was born in Hawaii, and my friend says, “Why did he wait so long to release his birth certificate?”

“What the fuck????” was my response.

Okay…there are probably many Americans who don’t obsessively follow politics who really don’t know that Obama released his official birth certificate in 2008. The media isn’t helping all that much by discussing “long form” and “short form.”

There is no such thing as a “long form” and a “short form” birth certificate in Hawaii. (Even the fucking White House uses the terminology wrong.) “Long form” and “short form” are Birfer fictions. So why the hell should anyone surrender to the inaccurate framing coming from the nut cases? So let’s try to get it right.

The birth certificate that Obama released in 2008 is THE official birth certificate currently provided by Hawaii. Anyone born in Hawaii who purchases a copy of their birth certificate gets a similar computer generated birth certificate. It is not the “short form.” It is just the current form.

Hawaii does not currently produce an official, legal document that contains an image of the vault copy of the birth records. This is old news, but was verified again this week by CNN. A person CAN acquire an image of the vault copy of the birth certificate, but it is not a valid, certified document. It’s cannot be used for purposes like acquiring a passport.

There is one exception to that.

President Obama asked for a waiver of Hawaii’s practices in order to get a birth certificate bearing an image of the vault copy of his birth certificate. Loretta Fuddy, Hawaii’s Director of Health responded to the request:

…in recognition of your status of President of the United States, I am making an exception to the current departmental policy, which is to issue a computer generated certified copy.

I’m sure that someone will suggest that Obama must now be impeached for outrageously “pulling strings.” Yes…for Obama-haters this “abuse of power” will be a tangible charge to use against him for his real crime: Presiding while Black.

As expected, Governor Gregoire is about to unleash a giant mess:

Gov. Chris Gregoire appears to be weighing either a partial veto or a full veto of a medical marijuana bill passed by the Legislature last week.

The governor at a news conference on Wednesday said “I’m looking at it only with what I can save. Not whether I will sign it.”

As a result of the governor’s expected veto, a slowly emerging medical marijuana industry that wants to operate legally, pay taxes, and adhere to state regulations is now preparing for armed raids of their establishments [emphasis mine]:

Alas, a bill is on Washington Governor Chris Gregoire’s desk right now—a bill that would license dispensaries and growers, which she could sign at any moment—that would do exactly that. Gregoire could eliminate this federal issue with the stroke of her pen. But as I reported last week, Gregoire says she’ll veto that part of the bill. Gregoire, as it turned out, fabricated a controversy to argue that if state employees issued the dispensary licenses, they could be held criminally liable (even though other states license dispensaries, none of those state employees have been prosecuted, and federal policy and procedure on medical pot hasn’t changed). Gregoire’s speculation is unfounded, but that’s her argument. As of today her office says she still intends to veto the bill’s dispensary provisions.

In doing so, Gregoire would guarantee that that these dispensaries remain out of compliance with state law, and thus, Gregoire is inviting federal raids on sick people and their care providers. So in order to avoid a fake specter of something unrealistic happening (feds busting state employees), she is welcome a real, consequential set of raids on some of the most vulnerable people in the state. Tonight those folks are literally preparing for armed raids by federal agents wielding guns and battering rams.

This can’t be stressed enough. Gregoire’s stated reasons for vetoing this bill are pure fiction. There’s absolutely no chance – zero, zilch, none – that a state employee will be held criminally liable for taking part in the regulation of medical marijuana. A half-dozen other states already do this, and nothing even remotely like that has ever occurred, or ever will occur under Obama. His Justice Department has made it very clear that their policy is to respect state laws. In fact, one of the main regulators in Colorado is a former law enforcement officer who’s appeared on television doing his job. Yet she’s still maintaining this nonsense as if it’s true:

“I cannot and will not subject state employees to criminal prosecution at the federal level. I think that would be highly irresponsible on my part,” she told reporters.

She was referring to state employees who would collect fees or inspect and audit dispensaries and producers under the legislation.

Curiously though, she also said this today:

Gregoire said there are some aspects of the bill she’d like to save, if possible, such as a patient registry. “I think we need a registry to prevent arrest of medical patients,” she said.

So let me get this straight. She’s worried (wrongly) that the federal government will expend resources to arrest state employees taking part in Washington’s voter approved medical marijuana law, so she won’t sign that part of the bill. However, she supports a part of the bill that would put medical marijuana patients (who are just as in violation of federal law as those state employees) on a list that the federal government could potentially get their hands on? And she thinks this will prevent the arrest of medical marijuana patients? Especially since patients will have to grow for themselves again due to this veto? Is she the dumbest fucking person in the state?

One of my least favorite arguments ever is about how little difference there is between the parties. Yes, the Democrats are spineless and often plain bad on policy. But there are huge, important policy differences. At some point in those arguments, someone always brings up how it’s important to get the right federal judges in place. After all, with lifetime appointments and so many important things going on, no doubt the direction of the judiciary matters a hell of a lot. While this is true, because of those lifetime appointments, the judiciary tends to change slowly. In all my lifetime, for instance, the Supreme Court and much of the Federal judiciary has been very conservative.

By comparison, federal boards and commissions turn over much faster. In some cases like the debt commission, the balance is pretty much even, and it wasn’t going to be much more liberal than if a Republican was President. But with things like the National Labor Relations Board, the pendulum swings much faster in the other direction: 2 and a half years into his first term, Obama has already appointed 4 of the board members and the 5th is vacant. And this is largely true with any president: When a Democrat sits in the White House, the NLRB works for workers rights and when a Republican gets to appoint the board, it pushes the agenda of the already powerful.

So it is when the NLRB made a decision to actually enforce the labor rights of Boeing workers. This decision means the broad middle class in Western Washington will continue to grow. That if you maybe didn’t go to college, but are willing to work hard now, that a good job that feeds your family is still within reach. While Microsoft and others are important to the economy of the region, Boeing has always been a great way for many to move into the middle class. And I don’t think an NLRB appointed by McCain would have ruled the same way.

– Platinum!

– Some inclines are like that.

– Last week’s Parks and Recreation had me in stitches with what Tom calls foods. I’m so glad this exists.

– Will someone please run against Scott Brown?

– It’s nice to know that there is a bridge too far for racist Republicanism. Although, it’s true Barbour wasn’t going to be president anyway.

– Solar panels in roads?! Somebody get on this in America. (h/t)

– As I mentioned last week, I’m getting more involved with Sensible Washington and the I-1149 campaign. My main focus has been on making sure that Sensible Washington gets enough signatures to make the November ballot. With an all-volunteer effort, this is a massive organizational task, so I’ve been helping build some high-tech tools to make it happen. One of the main differences between last year and this year has been a larger base of volunteers, especially in the parts of the state where drug law reform hasn’t been as popular. If any of you want to help us get on the ballot, please sign up at the website.

– With the likely veto of the medical marijuana bill, the Cannabis Defense Coalition is welcoming Steph Sherer, the Executive Director of Americans for Safe Access, to provide training for dispensary operators and cooperative grow members who could potentially end up being raided over the next few weeks. There will be sessions in Seattle, Spokane, and Ellensburg. Governor Gregoire could obviously make all of this moot by just signing the bill that made it through the legislature, but the public safety of Washington residents apparently doesn’t trump her desire to serve in the Obama Administration.

Please join us tonight for an evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to join some of us for an earlier dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 223 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

There are a group of state, King County people and Seattle City Council people who insist that the cost overrun provision on the tunnel is meaningless. They stand in stark contrast with Mayor McGinn, and most of the non-Seattle legislators who support the cost overruns provision. And they keep getting angrier and angrier at McGinn for keeping his campaign promise to oppose the cost overrun provision. They think (perhaps with reason) that it’s an excuse to go back on his saying he wouldn’t oppose the tunnel itself.

But don’t believe Governor Gregoire, Exec Constantine, or any legislator or City Council member who says that Seattle won’t be on the hook for cost overruns while they keep acting like Seattle will be on the hook for those cost overruns. The state, the county especially, but also the city council all have had the opportunity to call McGinn’s bluff and instead have insisted on poisoning the well. This may be good politics, but if they want the project to go forward without the mayor trying to block it, it’s not in the interest of their policy.

A quick recap: a few weeks before the mayoral election, the city council passed an ordinance that McGinn felt (or said at the time he felt) hemmed Seattle into the tunnel option. As such, he announced that since he couldn’t stop the tunnel he would still oppose the provisions that put Seattle on the hook for cost overruns. In this environment, McGinn went on basically doing what he said he would do until Richard Conlin illegally signed the draft Environmental Impact Statement. From that point on, McGinn took a much harder line, including vetoing a tunnel ordinance, and supporting initiatives to put the tunnel itself to a vote. Still, publicly, his position throughout has been that if the city doesn’t have to pay cost overruns, he’ll get out of the way. The state has lied to Seattle about the project repeatedly.

And magically the tenor of the debate has already changed from “of course, Seattle has to pay cost overruns, they get this awesome tunnel!” to “of course, the city won’t have to pay for cost overruns, what would possibly give you that idea?” Still, many people outside of Seattle are taking the first tack, and there haven’t been any laws changed about it since everyone was saying the first part. So, despite assurances from the state, it’s tough to believe that they won’t put “Seattle area property owners” on the hook for cost overruns.

Of course Washington State and King County could do things to assure Seattle that they won’t have to pay cost overruns. The most obvious, is the state could repeal the cost overrun provision, and commit to paying for cost over runs, just like every other state highway project. If King County is as sure as Dow and others say they are that the state is picking up the tab, they could easily work out an agreement with the city to take over any cost overruns that the state imposes on “Seattle area property owners.” If the county people don’t trust McGinn, they could structure the deal in a way that says if Seattle challenges the tunnel, they are back on the hook for cost overruns, so that the tunnel can go forward.

Until the state or the county do something like this, they may believe that Seattle won’t pay cost overruns, but they’re not betting with their own money.

But who cares, right? I mean if there are cost overruns, someone is paying for them? Why does it matter if it’s Seattle? With or without the City Council, McGinn is going to get a proposal on the ballot (and we’ve seen his ability to get the signatures to put things on the ballot without the City Council) to put light rail around the city. It’ll be a much better plan if there isn’t a gigantic question mark in the budget from the state. Simply, Washington should pay for its highways with gas tax money, not local property taxes: Seattle has a better use for the local property tax money.

Now, maybe it is good politics to oppose McGinn. To say he’s just being intransigent or a flipflopper, or whatever. But when the cost overruns do come, when the traffic from taking away exits and onramps and adding tolls comes, when Seattle goes into the red to pay for a shitty road, when we’re still tethered to cars with gas $5, $6, $7 a gallon, it won’t be McGinn’s fault.

Between Donald Trump’s birther nonsense (which was the top story on Anderson Cooper tonight for some reason) and that damn wedding, I’m not watching cable news until next week. Someone send me an email if Gaddafi finally gets killed by one of his sons.

When it comes to baseball, I’m not much of a traditionalist. Our good friend, N in Seattle, most certainly is. So I’ve been curious to hear his thoughts on the proposed playoff expansion. I might be wrong, but I’m betting he hates it even more than Tim Lincecum. That said, I think I have a proposal that he’ll hate even more than that, but it would be a much more exciting playoff format than anything I’ve heard proposed before.

The two main complaints that I’ve seen about expanding the playoffs by two teams is that it will extend the season even more, and it will give the division winners too much time to rest up while the wild cards battle it out. This idea solves both of those problems AND it adds two more teams to the mix. Here’s how it works:

Six teams in each league make the playoffs. The three division winners and the three teams with the next best records are all seeded by record (so if a team wins a division with a terrible record, like the Seahawks did this year in the NFL, they’ll still make the playoffs, but as the 6 seed). They then play 9 games in 11 days, 3 each against a different playoff team:

Seed 1 plays: 4, 5, @6
Seed 2 plays: @5, 6, 3
Seed 3 plays: 6, 4, @2
Seed 4 plays: @1, @3, 5
Seed 5 plays: 2, @1, @4
Seed 6 plays: @3, @2, 1

The higher seeded team in each match-up plays at home. After the 9 games, the two teams with the best record will move on to play in the LCS and the rest of the playoffs will continue as it always has. If there’s a tie in the standings at the end of 9 games, the tie-breaker should probably be run differential, which could make for some interesting strategies in some late games.

I’m now ducking…

UPDATE: I’m putting way too much thought into this, but I’ve updated the original schedule so that even the 1 and 2 seed will have to play some road playoff games and the 5 and 6 seed get home games. The top three seeds would get 6 home, 3 away. Wild cards get 3 home, 6 away. Still waiting for that call from Bud Selig…