Archives for March 2013

Genesis 11:10-24
Two years after the flood, when Shem was one hundred, he had a son named Arpachshad. He had more children and died at the age of six hundred. This is a list of his descendants:

When Arpachshad was thirty-five, he had a son named Shelah. Arpachshad had more children and died at the age of four hundred thirty-eight.

When Shelah was thirty, he had a son named Eber. Shelah had more children and died at the age of four hundred thirty-three.

When Eber was thirty-four, he had a son named Peleg. Eber had more children and died at the age of four hundred sixty-four.

When Peleg was thirty, he had a son named Reu. Peleg had more children and died at the age of two hundred thirty-nine.

When Reu was thirty-two he had a son named Serug. Reu had more children and died at the age of two hundred thirty-nine.

When Serug was thirty, he had a son named Nahor. Serug had more children and died at the age of two hundred thirty.

When Nahor was twenty-nine, he had a son named Terah. Nahor had more children and died at the age of one hundred forty-eight.

Discuss.

Letterman: Biden one-ups Clinton on gay marriage.

Young Turks: Can Colbert’s sister defeat Mark “Hiking the Appalachian Trail” Sanford?

White House: West Wing Week.

The Makeover:

• Young Turks: GOP insultingly wonders why minorities don’t like them.
• Sharpton: The ‘narrow minded, stuffy old White Men’ of the GOP respond to Reince Preibus.
• Bill Press on the G.O.P. “makeover”.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: State Republicans ignore national ‘minority push’, double down on voter suppression.
• Sharpton: GOP’s talk of change is all hot air

Maddow: Obama receives Israel’s highest civilian distinction.

Pap: FAUX News is coming to your child’s public school classroom.

Obama to designate San Juan Islands National Monument:

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

Liberal Viewer: Deportation over a barking dog?

Michael Shure: Hillary dominates for 2016.

This IS your Grandfather’s CPAC:

• Susie Sampson’s Teaparty Report: CPAC.
• Thom: CPAC race panel “goes wild”.
• Michael Brooks: Why are Republicans going extinct?
• Young Turks: Slavery defender at CPAC gets pat on back.
• Sam Seder: Tea Party panel turns racist at CPAC.
• Red State Update: CPAC, New Pope, Rob Portman, and Michael Moore.
• Ann Telnaes: Sen. Ted Cruz delivers keynote CPAC address.
• Young Turks: Republicans lose War on Gay Marriage at CPAC.

Young Turks: A G.O.P. catfight!

Ann Telnaes: A new coat of paint for Gitmo.

Maddow: Misstated positions betray lack of seriousness on policy.

Shuster: Paul Ryan’s budget slashes social programs and cuts taxes for millionaires.

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Mark Fiore: Deficit Hawk Man!

The Tenth Anniversary:

• Sam Seder with Becky Bond: Reliving Iraq 10 years ago.
• Young Turks: FAUX News uber-fail on Iraq Invasion.
• Maddow: Bush administration officials unrepentant over Iraq War.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Crimes against humanity.
• Sam Seder: Re-living George W. Bush’s invasion of Iraq
• Young Turks: Dying Veteran’s last letter to Bush and Cheney.
• Sharpton: After 10 years, Republicans still denying the criminality of a falsified invasion
• Rummy tweets asking for respect & gratitude for him & fellow Iraq war criminals
• Thom: Time for our media to offer us—and the people of Iraq—an apology.
• Sam Seder: Media fails on who was right and who was wrong in Iraq Invasion.
• Young Turks: Was it worth it?

Tina Fey channels a certain half-term Governor.

Young Turks: Trump versus Malkin for battle of the clowns.

Andy Cobb: CNN Do-Over:

Ann Telnaes: Republicans rethink gay marriage.

Bachmann Bluster Overdrive:

• Alex Wagner: Michele Bachmann’s big fat food stamp lie.
• Sharpton: In 2013, Bachmann still vows to tear down Obamacare.
• Michele Bachman is in trouble.
• Maddow: House Tea Party caucus appears to be dead.
• Recovery Act:Latest in Michele Bachmann’s infrastructure hypocrisy

Netanyahu sets US conservatives straight on ‘anti-Israel’ Obama.

Young Turks: Newt and Santorum for president?

Thom: The effect of the sequester on small businesses.

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

In his I-502 update, Lee mentioned Mark Kleiman is going to be the main consultant for implementing the initiative. He hadn’t been on my radar before the hire, but I trust Lee’s judgement on this. So I was pleased to see this clip of him being dismissive of stupid questions on CNN.

A decent interview would have been interesting and enlightening. This was not that interview. A combination of anti-marijuana assumptions and attempted snark when it wasn’t called for sunk the interview from the start. But at least he didn’t take the stupid questions seriously.

I actually think whether people on our team have used cannabis at one time or another or what they think about cannabis legalization is irrelevant to the job they’ve been chosen to do.

That’s me transcribing it since I couldn’t find the transcript on CNN’s page, and any errors are mine. Anyway, I’m glad someone in the interview was serious. I only wish it was both sides.

Good on President Obama for creating a San Juan Islands National Monument.

President Obama on Monday will create a 955-acre national monument in Washington’s scenic San Juan Islands, using his authority under the same 1906 law deployed by President Theodore Roosevelt to begin preservation of this state’s Olympic Mountains and the Grand Canyon in Arizona.

The monument was championed by Western Washington lawmakers after legislation to create a National Conservation Area stalled in the Republican-controlled House Natural Resources Committee. Its chairman, Rep. Doc Hastings, R-Wash., has not even bothered to hold a hearing on the proposal.

[…]

Both federal, state and local officials have backed the monument not just to protect unspoiled places in the San Juan archipelago, but for economic reasons. Preservation is no longer “locking up” land, but rather welcoming visitors. “A national monument increases recreation dramatically,” Ranker said.

It’s quite amazing, and a testament not just to the administration and the legislators who made it happen, but the activists as well.

Last week when I wrote about the state version of the DREAM Act passing the Washington State House, I was cautiously optimistic:

I’m glad that this has passed with bipartisan support. Hopefully the lopsided nature of the vote and the number of Republicans supporting it means that it has a shot in the Senate.

One of the biggest hurdles was getting to committee in the GOP controlled Senate. And now it looks like at least that will happen.

The Wash. Senate Higher Education Committee has scheduled a hearing on the Dream Act for next Thursday, 3/28, per spokeswoman. #waleg

— Brian M. Rosenthal (@brianmrosenthal) March 21, 2013

So, here are the members of the Senate Higher Education Committee. The forces of basic human decency just have to peal one Republican (or Rodney Tom), so if you see your Senator, you might want to give them a call or an email. If they aren’t your Senator, it’s firstname.lastname@leg.wa.gov, but probably don’t mention that they aren’t your Senator. If it gets through then presumably they’d be able to find some GOP members like it did in the House.

– Get your questions in to ask the governor.

– In case you’re wondering why people used to call them MSGOP, here’s a reminder of where MSNBC were at the start of the Iraq war.

– Clean up your trash, Yakima businesses.

– Here’s the bad news: The funding for viaduct construction mitigation runs out next fall, at the same time that the temporary $20 vehicle license fee that preserved Metro service over the past two years expires. Combined, the two cuts add up to a “disaster,” Desmond told council members yesterday—45,000 transit hours a year, which amounts to a 14 percent cut in service on the Alaskan Way Viaduct corridor.

– A large road project finished on time and under budget in Seattle.

– The elite political media, past and present, living and dead, should atone in Purgatory for centuries over trying to redeem this vat of squalid poison. Because, over this weekend, we discovered, once again, that the irredeemable barrel that was Richard Nixon had no bottom to scrape.

– Blood-gargling psychopath

Usually when the party out of power in the legislature proposes taxing or spending policy, or a budget, they don’t have to worry about fancy stuff like basic math. It isn’t going to pass or be the basis of negotiations, so who cares? Then the party that was out of power gets some power, and they then have to propose realistic things. But I think the GOP have been out of power for too long, that now they control the Senate again, they’re proposing things, but not paying for them (h/t).

The Senate Majority Coalition rolled out a $300 million plan Tuesday that would partially reverse years of cuts in spending on colleges and universities and hold the line on fast-rising college tuition – but already the signs of conflict are apparent.

[…]

The coalition proposal increases higher education spending by roughly 10 percent, from the current $2.7 billion to $3 billion. Where that $300 million will come from, no one knows – that’s a matter for budget-writers to consider in the weeks ahead.

Seriously, that was the sort of thing you could do when you were the scrappy opposition. But now you have to find someone who can actually use a spreadsheet, or something.

Yesterday evening going to Drinking Liberally as it was raining, I caught a crowded bus downtown at its first stop. People started pouring on from under the awnings for half a block around. There were at least 30 people, probably more, and it was already crowded by the time I got on. That’s fine. I’m glad that a lot of people use the bus in Seattle.

Still, getting on the bus was rather annoying. There were several people — who I assume were regular commuters — without a basic understanding of paying. There were people who fished out their ORCA Cards at the machine. There were people who fumbled around for their money once they got to the box.

This is not great behavior in the best of times, but when there’s a line waiting in the rain, it’s really unacceptable. Please, for the sake of everyone behind you, be ready when you get on the bus. If there’s a line where you’re waiting, that should be the time to get ready.

Please join us tonight, on this 10th anniversary of the Iraq War, for an evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview and South Seattle chapters meet on Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

– Pacific NW Portal 5.5 is up.

– And from one of the new blogs at the PNWP, there’s a more accurate name for Chained CPI.

– What is going on with the Bellevue Police?

– Tim Eyman remains awful.

– The Daily Caller remains gross.

– What Chris Hayes Means to the Debate

– However, the Holy See should not be confused with Vatican City, independent only since the Lateran Treaty of 1929. The two entities issue distinct passports, and they have different official languages: Latin for the Holy See, Italian for Vatican City.

– Mark Kleiman has won the contract to be the main consultant for the implementation of I-502. Like most drug law reformers, I’ve had strong disagreements with him, but I think he can be a good fit for this role. And this is yet another foot forward in legitimizing what the voters have demanded, a legal and regulated market for marijuana that parallels alcohol in many ways.

– Representative Chris Hurst (D-Crazytown) has decided that I-502 needs some fixing. Amazingly, we agree on one aspect, his desire to have the 1000ft rule reduced to 500ft. And we agree over why (because it will likely push more marijuana retail outlets into the suburbs). We just disagree over why that’s a problem. But for all else, I have little regard for what Hurst thinks, since he’s the reason we had to pass this thing as a voter initiative in the first place. If he wanted to provide input on this initiative, he had his chance last winter when it first went to the legislature. He didn’t, so maybe next time, instead of being a whiny asshole after the fact, he’ll do his job in the first place.

– The Seattle Times editorial board is absolutely right to criticize Washington’s Congressional delegation for failing to be more vocal in support of I-502. The voters of this state overwhelmingly passed this initiative, yet neither Senator (nor even Jim McDermott!) has spoken out to see that it be implemented without federal interference.

– Some community members in Rainier Valley are upset at the large number of dispensaries that have set up shop there recently. There’s an easy solution to this – just wait. Dispensaries currently use a very creative interpretation of the 10-member rule (when you’re there obtaining medicine, you become a member, and when you leave you stop being a member). For the time being, law enforcement (particularly in Seattle) has little interest in challenging them. However, once I-502 is implemented and there are state-licensed retail outlets, I’m betting that the hammer will come down on the folks who try to stick with the “collective garden with a storefront” model. Especially if they’re not conforming with the 1000ft rule in I-502, which requires all retail outlets to be 1000ft from a school, park, and other places where children congregate.

– A Seattle entrepreneur is planning to turn a vacant Pacific County sawmill into a marijuana production facility. I think it can be somewhat overstated how much the marijuana industry alone can help the economy, but it’s still great to see it might allow for the re-purposing of old facilities and bringing new jobs to this state’s small towns.

The RNC has released their Campaign 2012 Postmortem. It’s full of fun, and sometimes delusional, stuff.

Here is what they said about polling:

The RNC should convene a quarterly summit by April 15, 2013, of leading GOP pollsters to discuss the current political environment and debate assumptions, sampling, screening, and weighting of samples in an attempt to generate more accurate and consistent data across multiple committees and campaigns.

Not a bad idea. If they do it honestly, they’ll likely come to the conclusion that any “likely voter” adjustment that changes results very far from a simple registered voter model should probably be rejected. I think they are getting at that with this point:

“Likely Voter” screening data collected by various firms in 2012 should be re-examined to see which voters eventually voted and which did not, allowing a validation of the most predictive screening questions and likely voter scales. Special attention needs to be given to this question to ensure that we are not screening out casual interest voters who nevertheless show up on Election Day. Screeners that are too robust, particularly during presidential cycles, have the potential to skew results to the favor of our candidates because they exclude too many young and minority voters.

I find much amusement in this confession.

You may recall that during the heat of the election season, there was a rather sudden and surprisingly unified right wing movement to label most mainstream pollsters as biased. Every time a poll came out showing Obama in the lead in a swing state, the representatives of the right wing spin machine went into tirades bordering on apoplexy attempting to discredit the poll by pointing out the poll’s many “flaws”.

When the report mentions “not screening out casual interest voters who nevertheless show up….”, it is an implicit admission that their obsession with better “likely voter” screens was largely unjustified.

From the hand of the propagandists (like Karl Rove and Dick Morris), it was transformed into a full right wing talking point, to be parroted with religious zealotry and absolute certainty by the brainwashed wingding masses. We saw some of the fruits of this process being spewed in the HA comment threads. Indeed, it became daily, if not hourly, masturbation for “Serial Conservative.” Collectively, from Karl Rove and Dick Morris, right down to “Serial Conservative”, they were deep into denial-of-reality territory.

In the end, the mainstream polls were, on average, pretty darned good.

At the time, I thought most of the propagandists didn’t really believe their own bullshit. Rather it was a big propaganda campaign to help with turnout, and instill doubt in Obama supporters. (And it DID do that. One of the remarkable things that happened to me after the election was learning about numerous friends, acquaintances, and colleagues who, unbeknownst to me, were following the analyses on HA. I was told many times after the election that those analyses provided great comfort.) Following the election, there were various clues that the propagandists, in fact, came to believe their own bullshit. They became victims of their own groupthink.

Oh…and on “groupthink” the report said this:

Groupthink is a Loser
1. Our friends and allies must realize that the Party is at its best as the Party of ideas, and healthy debate of those ideas is fundamentally good for the Republican Party.

They haven’t quite gotten this one right. There was no shortage of “ideas” from the right wing during the 2012 election cycle. No…that wasn’t specifically the problem. What they lacked was an ability to operate from the perspective of reality. Here’s what the report should have said: “We need to inform our ideas based on objective, realistic assessments of the world.”

Their response to the polling went beyond wishful thinking and simple confirmation bias…it was a deeply fatal case of reality denial.

The Seattle City Council has voted unanimously to say that any department (presumably just the police, but I’ve got my eye on you animal control) that wants to have drones or other surveillance equipment has to get it approved by the council and submit a plan for how they’re going to do that.

The Council has set out hoops through which the cops, or any other city department, much jump through before any big brother starts watching. Before acquiring surveillance equipment, the Seattle Police must obtain approval by the the Council. The police must propose protocols that disclose how cameras will be used, how and where data will be retained and stored and accessed.

The Council legislation requires Seattle Police to provide a description of “the nature and extent of public outreach conducted in each community in which the department intends to use the surveillance equipment.” And the police will have to explain “how the department’s use of the equipment will be regulated to protect privacy and limit the risk of potential abuse.”

The police would have to say how long data would be retained, and how it would be labeled or indexed, and who would have access to it.

If the Council has approved a request to purchase surveillance equipment, the Seattle Police cannot install cameras until the Council has formally set rules for its operation.

It’s obviously a better protection for civil liberties than the status quo, so great. We’ll get to have better knowledge and a chance to weigh in on future surveillance before it goes into action. Still, it doesn’t forestall abuse by the city. It only makes it somewhat tougher and more transparent. So vigilance is, as always, needed.

– Happy Bus Driver Appreciation Day

– Boo CNN

– I don’t even know what to say about this case, it’s so terrible. I will say about the article, that it should be consistent about using the word “rape” instead of “sex abuse” and “have sex” some of the time, and if you look at the URL, it clearly was in the title at some point, so the decision to soft pedal it happened at some point.

– Oh CPAC, you’re terrible.

– Freedom!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (not for ladies)

– Why does Bill Gates hate capitalism?

– Conservative Mystery Date

Last week’s contest was won by wes.in.wa. It was Arleta, CA, just outside of LA.

This week’s location is somewhere in Washington state, good luck! And Happy St. Patty’s Day!