Archives for December 2014

– The most confusing thing about this is that Dori Monson seems to think that crime is higher in Seattle now than it was when he was growing up.

– The Great National Whitewash Continues

– I support the Graduate Assistants at the University of Oregon.

– This stops today: Seeking strategies to end discriminatory policing

– SeaTac has charged Kshama Sawant with disorderly conduct. If you would like to complain to the City Attorney’s office — politely — you can do so here.

– Existing While Black

– We should probably integrate the monorail into ORCA, and the lease to operate it being up is as good a time as any. I actually use it for non-touristy stuff fairly frequently, and it would be pretty nice (usually I walk or bike it, but not always).

It looks like the longest flight in aviation history is finally over, now that the NRA’s Brian Judy has been sighted in Olympia. Way back on July 28, hours after I posted embarrassing audio of Judy offensively comparing gun background checks to Nazi Germany, the NRA spokesman and lobbyist brushed off PubliCola’s questions, telling them he was boarding a plane and would get back to them later. Judy hadn’t been heard from since.

Four months later—on the day Initiative 594 goes into effect—Judy’s plane has apparently finally landed back in Olympia, where he’s reportedly lobbying legislators ahead of the coming legislative session.

Speaking to a pro-gun audience in Silverdale, WA on July 23, Judy went after I-594’s biggest funder, Nick Hanauer* for supporting “the same policy that led to his family getting run out of Germany by the Nazis,” provoking outrage from Jewish groups nationwide. “These people…” Judy continued, “it’s like any Jewish people I meet who are anti-gun … you come to this country and you support gun control? Why did you flee to this country in the first place? Hello! Is anybody home here?”

Listen to Judy’s full remarks below, and then email your legislator to ask them whether they can seriously do business with an anti-semitic buffoon like him?

 

* Full disclosure: I now work for Hanauer.

– Protections for free speech are awesome, but I don’t think they covers threatening to murder your estranged wife.

– It strikes me as strange that we didn’t know who would be the GOP leadership if they’d won the state Senate, but now we know.

– If you’re terrified of mostly-peaceful protesters, imagine what it’s like to be terrified of the police every day of your life.

– While I fully admit that I don’t understand all the technical issues, I would like quicker Internet in Seattle, pleez.

– As sad as the perpetual closing/almost closing of neat theaters in Seattle is, maybe it’s the market speaking?

Please join us tonight for another evening of politics and conversation over a drink at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. The starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks show up before that for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Tacoma chapter meets.

There are 178 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon and two in Idaho, so chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

– Sally Clark should resign if that’s the attitude she takes after hitting a bike.

– I can’t even imagine wanting to follow protesters around with guns.

– My Vassar College Faculty ID Makes Everything OK

– Jeff Merkley is right about ending too big to jail as a concept.

– Instead of trying to fix this problem by telling our daughters what they can’t like, I think it might be better to work toward a society that accepts scientists, programmers, and CEOs that like unicorns and the color pink just as much as those that don’t.

– Reasonable complaints about women’s soccer in the UK.