Archives for June 2011

I mostly agree with Goldy that we shouldn’t judge the Martin Luther King Elementary sale solely on the money.

Perhaps the higher bid from the exclusive Bush School, along with its promise to keep the play fields open to the public on weekends would have been the best option for the community. Perhaps the investigation will ultimately uncover something improper about the First AME deal. I don’t know. But there’s nothing scandalous in itself about taking less money for the property in the interest of best serving the needs of the surrounding neighborhood.

And that’s why the Seattle Times’ editorial that followed was so dispiriting.

In a time of teacher layoffs, postponed schoolbook purchases and curtailed library usage, the district ignored the highest bidder — using private capital — to go for the lowest bidder using a state grant — taxpayer money.

The Seattle Times finds no need to mention WHY we’re in that “time of teacher layoffs, postponed schoolbook purchases and curtailed library usage.” Subtlety implying that the sale is the reason teachers have to be laid off. No need to mention how much their preferred budgets hit schools versus this sale. No need to even see if they had another reason for the sale. I mean, to take an extreme example, if a nuclear waste dump was the highest bidder, I doubt the Seattle Times editorial would demand we go with it.

And given that, I find their attitude a bit much.

This transaction needs to be sliced and diced in bright sunshine for all to see. Much more is at risk than the lost revenue and opportunity costs of a tawdry deal.

OK, I agree (except, perhaps, for the tawdry part) that more examination of what happened is a good idea. Still going out with the assumption that it must be tawdry, it must be the wrong deal isn’t going to help.

The school district is developing a grim reputation for sloppy stewardship of tax dollars. A legacy with consequences.

The Seattle Times is developing a grim reputation for sloppy stewardship of our tax cut dollars. While the news side still does good work (including the story that prompted the editorial), it’s hard to believe that the B&O and sales tax money that the Seattle Times saved over the years wouldn’t be worth a few more teachers at schools around the state.

A few years ago when Frank Blethen lobbied for the B&O tax break, he argued that newspapers were vital to the state. They force politicians out into the light and expand the dialogue in meaningful ways, that they are in some sense a good for the public. Then when an important job at the editorial page opened up, he gave it to his son who can’t write worth a damn. It seems to me if their goal was to perform a public good, they would have hired someone else rather than that tawdry nonsense.

Stranger reporter David Goldstein, a.k.a. Goldy, provides more details on the incident last night at McKenna’s campaign kicker in which Goldy was blocked from attending the post speech press conference.

The campaign was specifically targeting The Stranger for exclusion, as the publication did not receive an invitation…and they essentially told Goldy as much. McKenna’s campaign communications coordinator Adam Faber told Goldy that “he wasn’t invited” and he couldn’t get in. Nevertheless, Goldy observed that Erik Smith, the right-wing whack-job who writes for Washington State Wire “also lacked campaign-approved credentials, but Reagan Dunn personally ushered him in.” So…it wasn’t that Goldy showed up uninvited (as did Smith)…it was that Goldy and The Stranger are specifically blacklisted.

Here is the audio Goldy captured beginning a few seconds into the conversation:

[audio:http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2011/06/09/1307655150-faber.mp3]

Goldy muses:

It’s an odd idea that candidates for public office (let alone an open government champion) should get to pick and choose which professional journalists get to attend their press conferences—and yes, that paycheck I get from The Stranger makes me a professional journalist, so suck it up. Granted, I haven’t exactly written glowing prose about McKenna, but politics is a tough business, and besides, it’s not like denying me access is going to stop me from writing.

An interesting irony in this exchange comes at about 1:50:

Goldy: And I could have been at the Tom Skerritt happy hour this evening…

Faber: Well…he looked great on that cover you had the other day.

Huh…So Adam Faber, the communications coordinator, reads (or at a minimum checks out the cover of) The Stranger—the publication his campaign has blacklisted?!?

What a bunch of hypocritical assholes!

There are warning signs here. The McKenna campaign, right out of the starting gate, is engaging in thuggery. “Open government champion,” my ass. This feel a hell of a lot like the tactics of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker….

I start a new job tomorrow. As it goes with these things, I never know how much time I’ll still have to write up posts (that likely depends on whether or not I start taking the bus). So if I stay pretty quiet for a while here, that’s why. Either way, I should be able to keep the Bird’s Eye View Contests going every Sunday.

– Sensible Washington is having a week-long money bomb. Please donate!

– Law Enforcement Against Prohibition will be holding a press conference on June 14 to mark the 40th anniversary of the “war on drugs” and call for its end.

Wouldn’t it be hilarious if the hooker that diapered and fucked Sen. Vitter was also sexting with Rep. Weiner?

(H/T Slog)

In 2004, King County Superior Court Judge William Downing issued a controversial ruling that same-sex couples could marry. The Seattle Times, sprung to action to find out where candidates in state-wide races stood:

…King County Councilman Rob McKenna, criticized the ruling’s wording as too broad and said its argument that there is no compelling state interest to deny marriage to two people in a committed relationship could leave marriage open to blood relatives or those practicing polygamy.

“It threatens to destroy all standards we apply to the right of marriage,” he said.

McKenna didn’t quite go as far as describing “man-on-dog” relationships, but the rest sure sounds like the nutty rhetoric of former Sen. Rick Santorum:

Every society in the history of man has upheld the institution of marriage as a bond between a man and a woman. […] In every society, the definition of marriage has not ever to my knowledge included homosexuality. That’s not to pick on homosexuality. It’s not, you know, man on child, man on dog, or whatever the case may be. It is one thing. And when you destroy that you have a dramatic impact on the quality — […]

The idea is that the state doesn’t have rights to limit individuals’ wants and passions. I disagree with that.

For what it is worth, the American Anthropological Association—you know, the folks who study humans and their cultures, cross-culturally and historically—take exception to both Santorum’s and McKenna’s narrow, conservative view of marriage and family:

The results of more than a century of anthropological research on households, kinship relationships, and families, across cultures and through time, provide no support whatsoever for the view that either civilization or viable social orders depend upon marriage as an exclusively heterosexual institution. Rather, anthropological research supports the conclusion that a vast array of family types, including families built upon same-sex partnerships, can contribute to stable and humane societies.

But back in 2004, McKenna could express his inner-Santorum because he had an easy out:

McKenna said that although he agrees with the Defense of Marriage Act, his personal opinions would not enter into how he argued a court case.

That was then…this is now. As Governor McKenna, Rob’s personal opinions would have a huge impact on the lives of Washingtonians. His opinion would help inform decisions to sign or veto bills and how the legislation is executed. He would have the bully pulpit for setting the legislative agenda.

We are on the journey to learn whether Washingtonians are ready and willing to put a little Santorum in the governor’s mansion.

(h/t)

Update: In which Stranger reporter and HorsesAss religion correspondent David (Goldy) Goldstein gets pissed on by the McKenna campaign.

I can think of one circumstance under which Rep. Weiner should resign: he makes a pact with Sen. Vitter and they both fall on their swords (figuratively) and go away.

Think about it. The calculus is right. Weiner flirted at a distance with women. Vitter hired a prostitute to play out his diaper fantasies. Roughly speaking, Vitter’s crime (yes…he actually broke the law) is many times worse than Weiner’s stupid, ill-advised, boorish, but not illegal, e-flirting.

A simplistic model would value a Senate seat as worth about 4.38 (=438/100) times the value of a house seats, giving the paired resignations impacts roughly commensurate with the respective offenses.

You know what is totally unacceptable?

Answer: Assholes calling for Rep. Weiner’s resignation without applying the same moral standards to Sen. Vitter. Because that is blatant, ugly, stupid, repulsive hypocrisy.

Rep. Reince Priebus is an asshole for his blatant, ugly, stupid, repulsive hypocrisy.

And to be clear, by “same moral standards”, I mean standards that consider the seriousness of the allegations. Vitter broke the law at the same time he was committing adultery by fucking a prostitute. Maybe you believe sexting is a form of adultery. I believe most people would recognize sexting as less of a violation of ones vows in partnership than physically fucking a prostitute—which, at the very minimum, has the potential for more serious complications like STDs or extramarital pregnancies. Honest politicians and pundits shouldn’t treat Weiner any worse, for an offence far less serious, than they have (or will) treat Vitter.

I’ll call for neither of them to resign…as happened in 2010 for Vitter, we should leave it to the voters to decide.

Unless, of course, Weiner and Vitter agree to resign together.

– Here’s the Families and Education Levy website.

– Dori Monson is an awful person.

– Paying for a college education is going to be harder and harder (PS, while this article itself is worth reading, I’m not sure when Publicola decides to label things “other blogs.”

– I don’t know what’s more surprising about the Arizona Diamondbacks: the how many former Mariners they have or how well they’re doing (PS on the Podcast, I love how many different ways they pronounce “JJ Putz”).

– While I’m generally opposed to using nouns as verbs, I totally use MacGyver to mean make something on the fly.

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. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to join some of us for an earlier dinner.

Every time Sarah Palin makes a statement to the media, God kills an historian:

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 228 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

OK, one more quick Anthony Weiner post and we can all get back to local issues or The Amazing World of Tomorrow, or whatever. This hyperbole in Joni Balter’s Ed cetera piece that’s otherwise a bit moralistic but fine is really bad.

Rep. Anthony Weiner embarrassed the House, the Democrats, himself, his wife and everyone by taking a picture of himself in his now famous gray undies, then tweeting it to a college student, and then standing up and facing the cameras and blaming a cyber-hoax.

Weiner, obviously. He’s embarrassed. His wife probably. The House, you could make a case, but it’s pretty weak. Democrats called for an investigation. Everyone? I’m not embarrassed by it. I liked him because for the most part I agreed with his policy agenda. But now there’s a serious black mark.

I commented in Darryl’s piece that the consent issues are the most important. If he’s just cheating, or whatever you call it with just pictures, then it’s between him and his family. If he sent the pictures to women who hadn’t given consent, then no doy, he’s got to go. So far he claims it was consensual and if that’s the case, his family and his constituents can decide if this is serious enough. And for the record, I thought Larry Craig shouldn’t step down even though he had committed a crime, because really it was none of my business.

But back to Joni Balter. Is everyone really embarrassed? Balter can’t think of a single person in the entire world who wasn’t embarrassed by this? In order I’d say he embarrassed:

Himself
His wife
His supporters who went on a limb for him
Possibly the women who he sent pictures to
NOBODY ELSE

Also, we need a better name for this scandal than “Weinergate.” Yes, I realize it’s a pun because his name sounds like a thing we call penises, but really it’s just the guy’s name and then “gate.” It might be easier if all scandals were scandalized person’s name gate, but otherwise, couldn’t half of all scandals in DC be called weinergate? Here’s a list off the top of my head of better names to call it. The list ignores that “gate” is a dumb suffix for scandal:

Undiegate
Boxerbriefsgate
Trousersgate
Twittergate
Textingladiesinappropriatepicturesgate
Gaitgate
Cockgate
Sextinggate
Anexcuseforthemediatouse”sexting”asifit’sarealwordgate
CreepyInternetdudewhoisalsoaCongressmangate

OK, maybe Weinergate isn’t as bad as I’d thought before I made this list, but I’m still unhappy with it.

I couldn’t find a statewide list, but the Sec of State’s office has links to the individual counties auditors/election departments. Here are the King County people who’ve filed for election so far. Good luck to the ones I support, bad luck to those I oppose, and if I don’t have an opinion on the race, I hope everyone is healthy, and enjoys at least part of the process.

Okay…Rep. Weiner’s press conference wasn’t the world’s weirdest—that title still has to go to former Gov. Sanford’s “post-Appalachian hiking” trip presser.

The weirdness was at the front end. When I tuned in the live stream just before 1:00 pm local time, there was Andrew Breitbart, the person who broke the Weiner story, at the podium. And he hung out at the podium answering questions for a long time, leading one reporter to ask via Twitter whether the press had been duped into some sort of Breitbart publicity stunt. The press has developed a partial skepticism of Breitbart, something he earned by breaking previous stories that ended up being dead wrong and based on doctored or misleading videos. You know…the phony ACORN “scandal” and the “Shirley Sherrod is a racist” bullshit.

In this case however…Breitbart got the story pretty much correct.

When Breitbart finished there was a long break before Weiner took the podium.

Weiner fought back the tears as he confessed to and profusely apologized for having inappropriate tweets, emails, and a couple of phone calls with about six women over three years. He made clear that he never met any of them in person and never had sex with them. He met them on Facebook.

Weiner also admitted to lying to everyone about that initial tweet—with the photo of his inflated briefs—which he meant to PM and tweeted instead. The suggestion that his Twitter account had been hacked was a lie, he confessed. He apologized to everyone—his wife, their families, his constituents, the Seattle woman whose life was disrupted by this, his staff (meaning, I believe, his congressional staff), and The Press. Christ…he even apologized to Breitbart.

It took a follow-up question to ask if he would resign. No, he won’t. And then he answered reporter’s questions frankly and earnestly. No…his wife and he were not going to split. Yes, they love each other. Yes, she was disappointed. He admitted to lying about the tweets because he was embarrassed and didn’t want to get caught. And, over and over again, he kept “taking full responsibility” and apologizing.

He also kept pointed out that what he did was stupid. But not illegal. So that was the presser.

I have to say…I am not surprised. Even without surprise, I am a little disappointed in Weiner. That’s why I haven’t had much to say about the scandal, except for having a little fun at Dick Cheney’s expense. Seriously, I cannot get too worked up about flirting via social media. What he did doesn’t arise to much (so to speak…in another sense it raises surprisingly….).

Where I do fault Weiner is…STUPIDITY! Public figures should not flirt via social media. Not because of any legal or even ethical questions. No…because it invites scandal, precisely of the type we have here. So Weiner acted stupidly.

This is the same point I made for former Rep. Christopher Lee, who wasn’t simply engaging in flirting, exactly. Rather, he was trolling for sex via Craigslist using his real name, but claiming to be a lobbyist:

Lying, willingness to break his marriage vows…and sheer stupidity! Seriously…the dude didn’t even change his name and then sends the woman a topless photo of himself. Was he trying to create a public scandal?

Lee’s “activities” should be several orders of magnitude over Weiner’s on the sheer stupidity scale. But given that Weiner kept sending flirtatious tweets after Lee’s insta-resignation raises his stupidity level one order of magnitude below that of Lee.

Somewhere in between them is former Sen. Larry Craig, whose wide stance and toe-tapping turned into disorderly conduct. Stupid.

And then there is the stupidity of Sen. Vitter, whose sexual fantasies involved trans-infantile activities with a hooker, and former Gov. Elliot Spitzer who just liked very high price hookers. These guys were sort of stupid, and they both broke the law. They both left enough clues to get caught. And one of them is a flaming “family values” hypocrite. Oddly, he’s the one still in office.

And then there is the uber-stupidity of former Sen. Ensign and former Sen. Edwards. They had affairs whilst in the public spotlight. They were both busted as “family values” hypocrites. And they both took actions to cover up their scandals that involved large sums of money. Now they are both at risk of doing time for their alleged crimes. And that’s just super-stupid!

But almost nothing tops the stupidity of former Gov. Sanford, whose flirtations (Weiner-magnitude stupidity) via email turned into a full-blown affair (about Craig-level stupidity). So he concocted a story about hiking the Appalachian trail, ditched his security detail, left his car at the Atlanta airport, flew to Argentina, and thought nobody would notice for ten days. That’s Vitter—Spitzer stupid, at least. Oh…and he my have used state money to hook-up with his paramour, money he later reimbursed to the state (near-Ensign—Edwards stupid). It doesn’t look like Sanford is going to jail. But what puts Sanford at the top of the stupid politician stupidity scale was the interviews he gave shortly after his “hiking” trip:

In emotional interviews with the AP over two days, he said he would die “knowing that I had met my soul mate.” […]

Sanford insisted his relationship with Maria Belen Chapur, whom he met at an open air dance spot in Uruguay eight years ago, was more than just sex.

“This was a whole lot more than a simple affair, this was a love story,” Sanford said. “A forbidden one, a tragic one, but a love story at the end of the day.”

Too! Much! Information!!!!

In sum…It’s the stupidity, stupid!

So, Weiner…install some Constituent Control and Monitoring Software on your computers, and get back to work.

– The anti choice movement can really made your skin crawl (h/t).

– Go see how the Republican plan to screw Medicare hurts your Congressional District. There may be a follow up post, but probably not (h/t).

– I loved learning about how they collect bugs in the soil & leaf litter.

– They’re already beating us.

– If Anthony Weiner sent a picture of his penis to random women, then there should be a price to pay, but oh my have the right wingers lost their fucking minds (has an unsafe for work picture, but not one as bad as what was on the front page here).

– Last weekend was great for a bike ride.

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was Bern, Switzerland.

This week’s is another random location in the world. Good luck!

Deuteronomy 12:15-16
However, you may slaughter and eat meat within any of your towns, as much as you desire, according to the blessing of the LORD your God that he has given you. The unclean and the clean may eat of it, as of the gazelle and as of the deer. Only you shall not eat the blood; you shall pour it out on the earth like water.

Discuss.

Between Memorial Day weekend and my general laziness, we went a long time sans an open thread from the end of last week (From Friday morning to the DL Thread put up early on Tuesday). By the end of that time conversation generally dried up in the previous open thread, and people started writing off topic in other threads.

Those off topic comments got deleted, and it naturally caused some anger. It’s one thing to say “post that in an open thread” when there’s an open thread from today or yesterday. It’s another thing to say, “post that in an open thread, um from a week ago.” Darryl and I discussed it at Drinking Liberally, and I’m not sure we came up with an answer, but we had some thoughts. I’d like to explain what I usually do and what I did the rest of this week, and then I’ll discuss some possible things going forward.

Normally, I try to do 2 or 3 open threads a week, spaced out, but it’s more when I have enough things that I find interesting to link to than a specific amount of time. I try to have at least one local link and one thing that doesn’t involve politics (sports, science, music, etc.) in every open thread. I’ve been making an effort to link to some Eastern WA content with not that much success, and to link to women and people of color with more success, but neither of those has been a hard and fast rule. Also, if someone else does an open thread, I’ll wait until the next day to do one, even if mine is ready.

This week, on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday I changed that up a bit. I posted open threads all three of those days (and tried to post all in the morning, but didn’t have the time on Thursday). I don’t think the quality of the links was as good in general, and there was a pretty major fuck up in one of those links on Thursday (from me scanning the headlines instead of reading the post). I think that looking for stuff for more open threads took away time for writing other posts.

So, going forward, I don’t really want to manually do an open thread with links every day. But here’s some thoughts that Darryl and I discussed:

• Just keep doing what we’re doing. We usually have them every few days, and so what if nothing comes up because of long weekend or one of us is on vacation, well that’s not the end of the world.
• Creating an open thread user that the rest of us can edit. Everyone add links as we find them. There’s some possibility that we can step on each other’s toes, and it might be annoying to do it from the back end. We’d have some problems deciding when it’s ready to go.
• There’s no inherent need to have links. I think they add a place to start the discussion and in general I like most of the blogs I link to. I think there’s some responsibility for higher traffic blogs to link to other blogs, especially in my case where my place at a high traffic blog isn’t really from my own hard work, but from being given the spot. But I imagine people will find something to talk about even without a link.
• We could do some sort of hybrid where, for example, on Monday, Wednesday, and Friday we just have an open thread and on Tuesday and Thursday we have an open thread with links.

I’m sure I’ve forgotten something since I discussed with Darryl on Tuesday, but those are my thoughts. I’d like to hear your thoughts and suggestions.