Archives for April 2011

I just adored this photo essay by McGinn on Seattle’s values. Of course a lot of them are universal values, not unique to Seattle or to cities in general, but all in all wonderful.

Remember the anecdote about the college drop-out, DUI-collecting, son of a lobbyist and big donor who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) to head environmental and regulatory affairs in the state Department of Commerce for $81,500 a year?

He has been given a demotion in response to a “public uproar.”

But the Journal Sentinel gives the qualifications on the two other people who applied for the position that supervises 76 employees and oversees storage tank regulations and environmental cleanups:

The first, Oscar Herrera, is a former state cabinet secretary under Republican Gov. Scott McCallum with a doctoral degree and eight years’ experience overseeing the cleanup of petroleum-contaminated sites.

The second, Bernice Mattsson, is a professional engineer who served since 2003 in the post to which Deschane was appointed.

By contrast, Deschane has no college degree, little management experience and a couple of drunken-driving convictions. His father represents a trade group that gave more than $121,000 to Walker and his running mate.

Herrera and Mattsson didn’t get far in the process.

“Neither candidate was interviewed,” said agency spokesman Tony Hozeny.

Clearly, the last thing you need in such a position is someone with qualifications and experience.

And clearly, Walker considered that the single best qualification for the job was having a generous father who is a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Builders Association.

Nothing stinky here, folks. Just move along!

Okay…maybe there was some political payback, and maybe there was some conflict of interest in having the son of a Wisconsin Builders Association lobbyist overseeing regulators of storage tanks. But, whatever…I mean, demotion accomplished!

And by “demotion” we learn he will go…

…back to the Department of Regulation and Licensing and his $64,728-a-year job as bureau director of board services.

(*Sigh*)

In Wisconsin, two of yesterday’s races were being touted as a referendum on Gov. Scott Walker’s (R) rather extremist anti-worker, anti-middle class agenda. Now it is mostly all over but for the recounts.

The second most important race is for Gov. Walker’s former position as Milwaukee County executive, a post he held from 2002 to 2010. The Republican candidate state Rep. Jeff Stone (R-Greendale), who is portrayed in the liberal blogosphere as a Scott Walker clone. The opponent is philanthropist and political newcomer, Chris Abele (D).

The result? A +22% landslide for Abele:

Abele had 61% of the vote to 39% for Stone, according to unofficial results with all votes counted

The voters of Milwaukee county have spoken: “Walker clone sucks,” or maybe, “We don’t trust no Republicans no more,” or, perhaps, “We dislike Gov. Walker’s extremism and won’t elect his cronies.” It’s hard to adjudicate amongst these options without additional information.

The most important election is for state Supreme Court, where Justice David Prosser (the incumbent) is up against Assistant Attorney General JoAnne Kloppenburg. Kloppenburg is the liberal and Prosser is the semi-crazy conservative in this non-partisan race. Where’d I get the “semi-crazy” from? Well…let’s politely overlook the fact that Sarah Palin has endorsed him (perhaps against his will!). Let’s ask former Gov. Patrick Lucey (D) who, until early April, was the honorary co-chairman of Prosser’s campaign:

“I have followed with increasing dismay and now alarm the campaign of Justice David Prosser, whom I endorsed at the outset of his campaign and in whose campaign I serve as the honorary co-chairman,” Lucey said in the statement. “I can no longer in good conscience lend my name and support to Justice Prosser’s candidacy. Too much has come to light that Justice Prosser has lost that most crucial of characteristics for a Supreme Court Justice — as for any judge — even-handed impartiality. Along with that failing has come a disturbing distemper and lack of civility that does not bode well for the High Court in the face of demands that are sure to be placed on it in these times of great political and legal volatility.”

With no prior information we would might expect the incumbent to prevail.

The election is too close to call. The last numbers I could find have Prosser leading by 585 votes with 34 of 3,596 precincts left to report. As it happens most of the 34 precincts are from pro-Kloppenburg counties.

Starting with the table found here, I project (using ONLY the county-wide percentages and estimate of the number of votes remaining) that there will be 6,546 additional votes for Kloppenburg and 4,871 additional votes for Prosser. After we take into account Prosser’s 585 lead this evening, Kloppenburg should have a final lead of about 1,091 votes. The wrench in the calculations is that I have no idea how many absentee ballots and provisional ballots will be counted and how they will break.

The losing candidate will, no doubt, request a recount (which, under Wisconsin law is not automatic). My hunch is that the recount will favor Kloppenburg a bit (keep in mind what happened in Cantwell–Gorton, 2000; Gregoire–Rossi, 2004; Franken–Coleman, 2008). But watch out for those absentee ballots and provisional ballots…they add considerable uncertainty to any projections.

So, who really wins…Workers or Walker? Given the closeness of this race, it will be hard for either side to make too much over the eventual winner. That said, the expectation that a incumbent should win such a race means that a Kloppenburg win, and maybe even a very close loss, provides modest evidence that Wisconsin voters have joined with their Milwaukee county brethren to give Gov. Walker a collective thumbs down.

Update: With three precincts left to report, it looks like Kloppenburg will lead with about 260 votes. Wisconsin absentee voter law requires ballots to arrive by the 8 pm poll-closing time on election night. There is a limited postmark exception for some overseas military personnel, but the exception doesn’t apply to this election.

There should be a hand full of provisional ballots to count. This 2008 memo points out that provisional ballots must be “dealt with” by 4:00 pm today:

A provisional ballot is used when a person attempts to vote who is required to provide proof of residency but who does not have such proof with them. […]

The person is to be offered the opportunity to vote a provisional ballot and if they agree, are to be provided with envelope marked “ballot under s. 6.97 stats.” The person shall be required to sign written affirmation on envelope that they are qualified elector in that ward or district and is eligible to vote. The ballot shall be noted with “s. 6.97” and person’s name placed on separate list. The person then has until 4 pm the day after the election to provide identification in order for vote to be counted.

For the most part, individuals required to provide proof of residency are those who register to vote on election day. There won’t be many, and as a group they should be younger (new voters), more transient (new state residents), and angrier (formerly inactive) than the general population. I suspect the provisionals will add to Kloppenburg’s lead.

Update II: Now there is one outstanding precinct and Kloppenburg has a 224 vote lead. The remaining county, Jefferson, went for Prosser 58% to 42%. Hence, if the precinct follows the overall county proportions, and is an average sized precinct for the county, Kloppenburg’s lead should be about 139 votes!

Last night I told Goldy last night I wanted Kloppenburg to come out 129 votes ahead (remember 2004?)…I may well get my wish!

Update III: Hmmm…I’ve been using the AP for election results, and they still have one precinct to go in Jefferson county. So I go to the Jefferson county web site and find updated numbers. Assuming none of the other numbers have changed, Prosser gains 2 votes when that last precinct is tallied.

Update IV: The AP has finally gotten that last precinct nailed. Some other numbers have changed a bit, probably as provisional ballots are resolved before the 4:00 pm CDT deadline (2:00 pm PDT).

The current tally has Kloppenburg leading Prosser by 204 votes.

Canvassing must be complete and reported by April 15th. The recount request from Prosser will come a few days later.

Update V: Too funny! Via WisPolitics:

“You’ve got a world driven by Madison, and a world driven by everybody else out across the majority of the rest of the state of Wisconsin,” Walker said at a press conference in the Capitol.
[…]

“For those who believe it’s a referendum, while it might have a statewide impact that we may lean one way or the other, it’s largely driven by Madison, and to a lesser extent Milwaukee,” the governor said.

Here is a beautiful map. Gosh…Madison has sure grown since I’ve lived there….it’s, like, one quarter of the state now! And who knew it had that “suburb” way up north along Lake Superior?

Of course, Walker was elected County Executive in Milwaukee county just a few years ago. And yesterday the county went 61% to 39% in favor of Democrat Chris Abele for the same position. And Milwaukee county went 57% to 43% in favor of Kloppenburg over incumbent Justice Prosser. (Ten years ago Prosser ran unopposed, so we cannot fairly compare the past results.)

It’s election night…in Wisconsin, where there are a couple of “bellwether” elections that are taken to be a referendum on Gov. Walker’s (R-WI) War on Workers™ (and overall teabaggy ways). Polls close at 7:00 pm here on the Left Coast. I guess there are local things to discuss, too, like…budget proposals out of Olympia.

So 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 earlier for election returns over dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 221 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Last night’s Cannabis Defense Coalition public meeting saw another large crowd. For the second month in a row, I moderated the meeting. The discussion was recorded and the audio should be posted up at the CDC webpage soon (UPDATE: It’s posted).

As expected, the main focus of the discussion was about the medical marijuana bill, SB 5073, which has been amended and re-amended a number of times so far. In its most recent incarnation, it provides for arrest protection for non-registered patients in only the most superficial sense. It prevents law enforcement from taking you to jail, but it doesn’t stop them from searching your house or charging you – and forcing you to use your affirmative defense in court. Of course, signing up for the registry gives you complete arrest protection, but the general sense from most patients is that signing up for the registry is a absolute non-starter, as these lists often end up in the wrong hands.

This dilemma of trust is really the heart of the remaining disagreements with the bill in its current form. The bill represents an attempt to craft a system that protects patients, but many of them are still convinced that they won’t be protected from overzealous law enforcement. For instance, the medical language in sections 301.2a and 2b were written with the help of a physician who had worked on the initial voter initiative in 1998. From a purely technical standpoint, the language of the bill should protect doctors who recommend and authorize medical marijuana use. But from an historical standpoint, there remains a lot of concern that doctors who do so will still be targeted, and that even well-written regulations will be enough to make doctors wary of inviting suspicion. As an example, Douglas Hiatt brought up Grant County, where law enforcement has repeatedly reported legitimate doctors to MQAC because they still believe that any authorization of medical marijuana is improper.

At the meeting, Alison Holcomb of the ACLU of Washington defended the language concerning doctors in Section 301, and assured everyone that doctors wouldn’t be targeted. It’s very possible she’s right and that the concerns expressed by the doctors who’ve been at the last two meetings won’t materialize. The ACLU has been a main driving force for this bill, and yesterday distributed this flyer in support. As has always been the case within drug law reform in Washington state, the ACLU has been more willing to work directly with institutional actors and to believe that they’ll act in good faith, while many in the patient community are more wary. The truth ends up being somewhere in the middle, with cases of law enforcement overreach and administrative cruelty that shock us, but with conditions slowly getting better for patients as we move forward. Much of the problem is one of culture and perception, something that the law can’t address.

One good illustration of this came at the end of the meeting, when defense attorney Kurt Boehl discussed a case he’s currently working on in Bellevue, where a medical marijuana patient used his marijuana while parked in the Bellevue Square parking lot. Very wisely, instead of using his marijuana before he drove, he waited until he got to his destination. The man had tinted windows, but opened his sunroof to allow for ventilation. Unfortunately, some Bellevue Police officers climbed to a high vantage point to see through his sunroof and claimed that he was using his medical marijuana in public view. In this environment, where many police officers are so eager to play gotcha with the law, it’s not hard to understand why many are wary of protections that are anything less than absolute.

Those debates aside, however, there remains one aspect of the bill that is truly bad and needs to be fixed. It’s the “lottery” provision that puts an artificially low cap on the number of dispensaries and could allow for a system where licenses are either given out randomly or to well-connected folks looking for easy profits, as has just happened in New Jersey. We need to push for a system that allows medical marijuana dispensaries to compete and fail based upon how well they serve customers, not based upon whether they possess the only license in town. Establishing a system where dispensaries are protected from competition is the best way to see them artificially inflate their prices and not give a crap about the people who rely on them.

As Goldy points out, we don’t actually need to save GET. But, much like Social Security, its solvency doesn’t stop critics from worrying about it. I don’t know, perhaps this is just concern trolling, but perhaps it’s legit. Better safe than sorry, so, here’s my plan to save GET for ever:

Free tuition. If a student has the qualifications to get into any of our institutions of higher learning, from the UW to our Community Colleges, they can get in. The state picks up everything up to a bachelor’s degree. We should make sure that money isn’t the thing that keeps people out of college. Ideally I’d say do it for everyone, but at the very least, free tuition for in state students.

Now, I realize that college tuition isn’t cheap for parents, so it won’t be cheap for the state. As much as dedicating a source of funding is usually the worse policy, I think that’s the way to go. You figure out how much it’ll cost to make college free across the state, and then figure out the source of money. That way if there’s a referendum to oppose the taxes, you can say that it is a vote against free college.

I know, I know, lots of people push for a high tuition and high financial aid model that many schools (public and private) have. Still our public schools ought to be that, public. And just as we don’t expect the wealthy to pay for public K-12, we shouldn’t expect them to pay a for public college education (outside of taxes). Surely just like the PTSA for K-12, there will be opportunities for wealthy people to pay more, but it shouldn’t be a requirement. There are some things that the market works great for, but education isn’t one of them.

Getting back to GET, the ostensible point of this post: there will be some people in the program who are out of luck. Parents sending their children to out of state schools who have this as part of their plan to pay tuition. We can figure out a way to accommodate them, at least partially. But for anyone in state, this is just as good of a deal as they would have got anyway.

Winners and losers aside, there is then a pot of money that people paid in. I recommend not spending it. I know, I know, in this economy and with my proposal of a major new spending increase, it’s hard to imagine the legislature not spending it down. But I recommend keeping it in place so that if and when future legislatures decide to increase tuition again, that we can revamp GET with that money.

Just a quick note to anyone who was stupid enough to buy tickets to the Charlie Sheen “show” in Everett. You appear to be among the many victims of the greatest crackhead swindle of all time.

Let’s begin with an example from Wisconsin, where Teabagger Scott Walker is the Gubernator. Via the Journal Sentinel’s political watchdog columnist, Daniel Bice:

Just in his mid-20s, Brian Deschane has no college degree, very little management experience and two drunken-driving convictions.

Yet he has landed an $81,500-per-year job in Gov. Scott Walker’s administration overseeing environmental and regulatory matters and dozens of employees at the Department of Commerce. Even though Walker says the state is broke and public employees are overpaid, Deschane already has earned a promotion and a 26% pay raise in just two months with the state.

How does a college drop-out with a couple of DUIs and no environmental or management experience pull off a sweet deal like that?

Obviously, it’s because his father put in a good word for him:

“I put in good words for every one of my children in their jobs,” said the elder Deschane. “But that would be the extent of it.”

That and a lot of money.

Brian’s father is a lobbyist for Wisconsin Builders Association (WBA). (The WBA is roughly equivalent of our Building Industry Association of Washington.) The WBA’s PAC was one of the top five contributers to Gov. Walker’s campaign. Contributions from the WBA and its members totaled $121,652.

I’m sure it is totally a coincidence that Scott Walker’s campaign manager (and currently Walker’s chief of staff) personally recommended young Brian Deschane for the job.

And about that promotion cum raise (my emphasis):

…Secretary David Ross, a Walker cabinet member, named [Brian] Deschane the bureau director of board services, a job that paid $64,728 a year.

Not long after, lawmakers approved the governor’s plan to convert the Department of Commerce to a public-private hybrid in charge of attracting and retaining businesses, with its regulatory and environmental functions being moved to other agencies.

Commerce Secretary Paul Jadin then appointed Deschane to his new post there to oversee the changes.

“It was felt that he would be helpful in working through the transition issues,” said Commerce Department spokesman Tony Hozeny.

The move meant a pay raise of more than $16,500 a year for Deschane, even though he had put in only a couple of months with the state.

Ahhh, yes. Here we have all of the elements of Today’s Republicans at their “best”.

First, one needs an emergency. The projected budget shortfall made a great excuse for Walker and his cronies.

First course of action: Give tax breaks to businesses to the tune of $117 million. At the same time, eliminate $16 million in tax credits for the poorest of workers.

Follow this up by slashing services for the poor, disabled, and elderly.

Next, attack labor. Say…strip workers of their collective bargaining rights, even after state unionized employees were willing to make concessions.

And, for good measure, pass the bill through using either illegal or, at best, highly questionable, legislative manurers manuvers.

Next, fill political appointment positions with utterly unqualified cronies (and college-drop-out, DUI racking, unqualified children of cronies).

Add to this, privatization of some government services (like converting the Department of Commerce to a public-private hybrid) to “save money.” And then “save money” by giving crony appointees big fat raises.

The whole scam is a recipe for a sort of public-private hybrid campaign financing: (1) Patron donates, (2) Governor hires patron, (3) Patron gets big fat raise, and back to step 1.

The only thing refreshing about all this is how these Republicans have given up all pretenses.

Now, they openly flaunt being crooks.

Jeralyn Merritt writes about how the DEA now appears to be an organization that enforces American drug laws anywhere in the world, regardless of whether or not the drugs were destined for the United States. In this particular case, our DEA conducted a sting of people running a drug smuggling ring from South America to Europe, through Africa. And American taxpayers will now bear the costs of trying and incarcerating those caught in the sting. When exactly did we vote to become the moral nannies for the whole world? As Pete Guither points out, this would be like sending DEA agents to French bars to arrest underage drinkers.

This AP report on what it’s like to be reporting from Tripoli right now is a fascinating read. None of it is surprising to anyone who’s been following what’s going on there, but it does provide a good illustration of how Gaddafi has been able to portray what’s happening there as a civil war against an armed insurrection. In a bizarre sense, one could refer to what’s happening there as a civil war, but it’s more accurately a war of optical illusion. What Gaddafi is trying to do is to convince these journalists (and by extension, the rest of the world) that he’s still vastly popular. He’s been shelling cities, killing thousands of civilians in their homes, then busing journalists on these “magical mystery tours” to witness bizarrely staged “celebrations”. The fact that Libyans are desperately trying to figure out ways to defend themselves from this madness doesn’t really make it a civil war.

None of this is to say whether or not our intervention there is wise. That’s an issue I’ve weighed in on and I still agree with the decision to intervene. But there are good arguments against, and unlike Iraq – where it was overwhelmingly obvious intervention was a disaster – we’ll be debating the wisdom of this move for years to come.

But the Gaddafi regime, and their reaction to the uprising, has been a terrifying display of homicidal pathology that I’m not sure I know a real precedent for. Gaddafi is like a cross between Idi Amin and Willy Wonka, living in a fictional world that he desperately wants the rest of the world to see; and he can still pay enough willing subjects (many of whom don’t appear to be Libyan) to carry out his plan.

So, I kept up the Sunday “Bible Study” posts after moving to Slog, partially out of habit, and partially just to keep my fingers in the muck that is HA, but if you couldn’t tell by my late postings these past couple weeks, I’m getting a little tired of the schtick.

The original idea was this: Goldy quotes offensive/bizarre/awful Bible verse entirely out of context—you know, just like the Bible thumpers often do—and then righties get all angry at Goldy for posting Bible verse out of context… even though I did so without comment. Predictable, yeah. But surprisingly amusing, and occasionally fascinating.

But now it just feels repetitive. (That said, I’m seriously considering recycling some of the “best of” Bible verses over at Slog, mostly out of laziness.)

Anyway, if folks really want this feature to continue, I might oblige, or perhaps the current HA crew might consider taking it over. Or if you think it’s time to nail this particular joke to the cross, I don’t think I’d disagree. Either way, let me know in the comment thread.

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was St. Louis, where a Deputy U.S. Marshall was killed in a shootout with a man he was trying to take into custody.

Here’s this week’s contest, just a random location somewhere in the world. Good luck!

– Mexico’s organized crime groups are now starting to take over some other agricultural industries by force.

– Naked Capitalism connects the dots on how our banking crisis provided a very strong disincentive to do anything about Wachovia’s dealings with Mexico’s drug trafficking organizations.

– At the Cannabis Defense Coalition’s public meeting tomorrow night, the discussion will be about the pending medical marijuana bill.

– Also regarding medical marijuana, Dr. Oz actually did a pretty good job with the topic, despite allowing heavily-funded charlatan Andrea Barthwell on the panel (Barthwell is paid by a company that makes a medical marijuana substitute called Sativex, which would like to charge lots of money for their drug without having to worry about people just using the plant instead).

– A good start for the M’s. They’re 2-0 and yesterday Ichiro became the all-time franchise hits leader.

Young Turks: Florida Republican Governor Rick Scott to drug test all public employees and welfare recipients.

Ann Telnaes: G.O.P. outlook for the 2012 presidential race.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Eric Cantor tries to rewrite the Constitution.

Newsy: Ohio Dems vow to fight anti-worker bill.

Young Turks on The Donald.

Mark Fiore: April message.

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

Tina Dupey with Andy Kroll: Recall effort in Wisconsin.

Maddow: Vermont’s “Medicare for All” single payer plan.

Young Turks: AK judicial panel nominee thinks premarital sex should be outlawed.

Congressional Correspondent’s Dinner:

• Anthony Weiner on his name (and other funny topics):
• Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) does stand-up.
• Daily Show’s Larry Wilmore does the Congressional Correspondence Dinner:

Newsy: Arizona law bans abortions based on sex and race.

Tina Dupey: Sarah Palin, obviously channeling Shakespeare, makes up another word.

Maddow: Why are Republicans afraid of Rachael Maddow?

Cenk: Wacky Republicans on Obama private army & jobs flip-flop.

Rep. Gohmer’s (R-TX) odd conspiracy theory: Libya action will deplete military to allow Obama to call up that private army authorized in health care bill (via Crooks and Liars).

Newsy: Battle budget.

Bill Maher’s dumbed down citizenship test:

Cenk: Leaked tape shows FAUX News executive lied about Obama & socialism.

Ann Telnaes: South Dakota passes 72 hour waiting period law.

Ed and Pap: The alternative reality of the Koch Brothers.

Maddow: Republicans attempt to change child labor laws in Maine.

Jon: I give up (via OneGoodMove).

ONN: Damaged women stage drunken 2 am march on Washington.

Thom: Is Fukushima already worse than Chemobyl?

Libya:

• Obama’s address on Libya.
• Sarah Palin exaggerates cost of Libya intervention by 700% (via ThinkProgress).
• Sarah Palin wonders if Libya action is a war, an intervention or a “squirmish” (via Crooks and Liars).

Ed and Pap: GOP passing laws to keep liberals from voting.

Gov. Gregoire (D-WA) on radiation from Japan.

Red State Update: The end of times:

ONN: American dream declared dead as final believer gives up.

Young Turks: Gov. Walker (R-WI) wants federal money.

Pap: Koch Brothers—The more we know you, the less we like you.

FAUX News executive confesses to lying on the air about Obama (via Media Matters).

Cenk: Glenn Beck claims Obama is helping terrorists in Libya.

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

Young Turks: Sarah Palin is a national embarassment on FAUX News.

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

WordPress ate my last post so here’s an abbreviated version before I head out: Even though House Republicans hate Obama, and might well not pass an authorization of force against Libya, he shouldn’t have taken military action there without one. The War Powers Act is more wide ranging than I’d like, but it still probably doesn’t allow this. Also, even if he could get authorization, I’m not sure he should have anyway. I do think the humanitarian mission has value, but I don’t know what the US and its allies have done to prevent a bloodbath by the rebels if they take Tripoli, and I can’t imagine a partition (especially one enforced by Western air power) working out well in the long term. That said, this conservative anti war case is embarrassingly stupid, even by Federal Way Conservative’s low, low standards.

Bush’s Unilateral Action Had More Partner’s Than Obama’s Multinational Effort

The Libya mission has the UN, and NATO, and sort of the Arab League? Well Iraq had the UK, Spain for a while, and Poland.

It’s all here, in black and white: When President Bush went to war against Iraq, he had 4 times as many nations supporting him than Obama doing his “Kinetic Military Action” in Libya.

This isn’t an apples to apples comparison. The link includes military action by every country that just supplied a few troops in Iraq at any time in the last decade. So most of them came on (and in small numbers) after the invasion. You can’t compare that to just an air offensive. Hell, the fact that Eritrea said they supported the invasion to try to gain favor with the Bush administration made them part of the Coalition of the Willing. We had to put those together because the Iraq war didn’t have the backing of NATO, the UN or other international organizations that might give it international legitimacy.

Of course, now that Obama’s little crusade against Libya is turning out far worse than Bush’s romp in Iraq, maybe even democrats will admit Bush was the greatest president ever.

Did a we lose several thousand troops and billions of dollars in Libya? Because if not, it’s not as bad.