Archives for April 2015

Last Thursday, the Obama Administration came forward with the news that a drone strike back in January killed an American and an Italian, along with the four militants who were holding them hostage. The American, Warren Weinstein, is the 8th American killed by the Obama Adminstration’s drone program. Of those eight, only 6 were even suspected of being part of a terrorist network.

As numerous reporters have noted, there’s hardly any transparency when it comes to how the CIA is carrying out these attacks. It would be one thing if the secrecy of these attacks served some practical purpose, but that doesn’t appear to be the case anywhere.

In Somalia and Yemen, our drone strikes have only compounded the instability. And in Pakistan, where the Obama Administration has given the CIA even greater leeway – and where Weinstein and Italian hostage Giovanni Lo Porto were killed – not even the most strident domestic opponents of the Islamic radicals think it’s working. Writing recently in the Globe and Mail, former Pakistani Ambassador to the U.S. Husain Haqqani writes about the Obama Administration’s misguided belief that they can win the war on terror by dropping bombs from flying robots:

The fascination with drones reflects the desire of leaders to be able to fight wars without risking casualties to their own side. The Obama administration has preferred using unmanned aircraft, armed with cameras and missiles, in locating and eliminating terrorists over committing troops or even intelligence officers in the field. The death of hostages, coupled with the fact that terrorists continue to recruit and multiply despite drone strikes, points to the folly of that approach.

His piece gets at the heart of why drone warfare fails and why there’s so much official secrecy around it. Drones didn’t become a popular method of battling radical groups because of their effectiveness in war. They became the primary means of battling radical groups because of their effectiveness in selling us on war. The lack of transparency – and of dead Americans – keeps this disconnect alive and keeps public support for drone strikes at a much higher level. If Americans fully understood how this method of dealing with groups like Al Qaeda isn’t just a failure, but actually counterproductive, there might start to be some momentum to wind it down. But for now, there’s still a widespread belief that this method of waging the war or terror actually works. If you’re a drone manufacturer or a politician afraid to challenge the CIA, the less said about these failures the better.

More news items from the last two weeks…

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Councilmember Sally Bagshaw just doesn’t get it:

Bagshaw said: “More than frustrated, I am sad about how Sawant is acting. I perceive her as intentionally creating class differences for her own gain, whereas we could be shaking everyone’s hands and working together to solve this problem… “

Sigh. So, the thing is, to accuse Kshama Sawant of “creating class differences” is to fail to acknowledge that class differences already exist. And I think that helps explain Bagshaw’s failure to connect with working-class voters.

Also, while Sawant is certainly attempting to create class consciousness (and she may even be attempting to exploit it), none of this is for Sawant’s personal gain. She’s a true believer in the midst of a class struggle. Simple as that. Read your Marx and you’ll gain a lot of insight into what motivates Sawant.

But to attribute it to ego or self-interest is to misread Sawant entirely.

As for Bagshaw, I don’t question her intentions. Every conversation we’ve had has been pleasant and polite. I think we mostly get each other. But then, that is because Bagshaw and I largely hail from the same class. The overflow crowd at the affordable housing forum last week, not so much.

Personally, I struggle to overcome my own class prejudices and preconceptions, not always successfully. Empathy can be a poor substitute for experience. But one thing I know for sure is that these class differences—and the anger and frustration they are generating—are very, very real.

– It is traumatic as F*&K to be a Black person who has awareness of what’s going on constantly foisted on them.

– Nonviolence as Compliance

– Inslee’s office really should have done better on the arctic oil drilling fleet.

– Looks like Dow’s State of the County speech was pretty good.

– So Sally Bagshaw both “felt jilted for not being able to join Licata and Sawant on stage at last week’s rent control forum” and thought the forum was an ethics violation?

– Paid parental leave for King County employees

– Droney weighs in

Hey look over there!

Seattle City Councilmember Sally Bagshaw says a town-hall meeting hosted by Councilmember Kshama Sawant at City Hall last week was really a “political rally designed to inflame emotions and get one council member re-elected.”

Um, with all due respect, Sally, that is total bullshit. And it is also a truly unfortunate and unnecessary distraction from the growing crisis over Seattle’s lack of affordable housing.

To be clear, I was at that town-hall meeting. I was the second public speaker on the agenda. And I spoke totally about policy. Not politics, policy. There wasn’t anything political in anything I said. Pure policy wonkery. Period.

Councilmember Sawant had invited me to speak so that I could present my proposal to tap into city and county bonding capacity to build affordable housing. In fact, she did more than just invite me. She and her staff twisted my arm to take an hour out from a really crushing schedule last week—to speak about policy! And a policy that has nothing directly to do with Sawant’s pet project of pushing for some sort of legal rent control.

It was, by the way, the exact same policy pitch that I personally made to Bagshaw just two days earlier at the 43rd LD Democrats’ straw poll. Was our one-on-one conversation a “political rally” too, Sally?

Sawant’s council colleagues would do better for themselves and their city by directly addressing housing affordability rather than attempting to distract from the issue by launching bullshit ethics complaints.

Today is Election Day in King county. So get that ballot filled out and in the mail, and then join us for an election day debriefing and a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. Our starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks stop by earlier 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. And next Monday, the Yakima and South Bellevue chapters meet.

There are 190 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon and two in Idaho. Chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

– The oil train bill did pass after all.

– I’ve always thought rightwing media caterwauling about the liberal media is more about working the refs than covering for their own failures. But I guess both are true.

– People driving through the bridge supports to go down a bumpy alleyway is a whole new way to get hurt while biking on the Missing Link and yet another hazard to look out for. Perhaps this happens now because the street is one-way for people driving. I don’t see any reason why the city can’t make some design changes to prevent this from happening again.

– William Wingate Sues Officer Cynthia Whitlatch and the Seattle Police Department Alleging Racial Discrimination

– The backlash is here, and it has lawyers, and things are going to get real ugly.

Job 3:2
He said:

Discuss.

Maddow: Mainstream Media sucks up anti-Clinton book by right wing author liar.

Tim Simons prepares for the White House correspondences’ dinner.

White House: West Wing Week.

Why frats aren’t that bad:

MinutePhysics: How big is the sun?

Dickipedia: Mitch McConnell is a dick.

President Obama and Bill Nye talk Earth Day in the Everglades.

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

The 2016 Clown Procession:

• Sam Seder: Marco Rubio’s unique homophobia
• Young Turks: Ted Cruz attacks John McCain, then apologizes.
• David Pakman: Uh-oh…Jeb Bush funneled $2 billion to George W. Bush’s big donors
• Sam Seder: Scott Walker is now bashing all immigrants
• Seth Meyers on candidate’s attempts at relatability
• David Pakman: Scott Walker attended a gay wedding reception, but won’t go to a gay wedding
• Sam Seder: Mike Huckabee’s ammosexual fantasies.
• David Pakman: Craziest GOP lineup ever as Ben Carson and Carly Fiorina Launch Presidential campaigns
• Chris Hayes and Dan Savage: Anti-gay GOPers and weddings.
• Jon: GOP anti-gay bigots and gay weddings
• David Pakman: Who will be the first Republican to drop out of the campaign
• Maddow: Campaign cash becomes early differentiator between parties for 2016
• Young Turks: Bobby Jindal refuses to give in to “gay marriage bullies”
• Sam Seder: Rand Paul isn’t sexist! We’re the “real sexists”!
• David Pakman: Corruption alert…Chris Christie privatizes water

Joe Biden and Blondie sing about naked men.

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

WaPo: No…same sex marriage will not cause 900,000 abortions.

Glacier National Park’s glaciers are disappearing:

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about Caffeine.

Mark Fiore: Death & Destruction, Inc..

Michael Brooks: Bill-O-the-Clown’s War on White Men™.

The week in Congressional Hits and Misses.

SlateTV: A mystery on Ceres.

On Drugs:

• Sam Seder: FAUX News celebrates 4/20 by scaring viewers about “more dangerous” types of pot
• Thom: Why 4/20 is celebrated
• Jon: 420 and Chris Christie.
• Thom: The “War on Drugs” is a war on America

Young Turks: Comcast–Time Warner deal is over.

Sam Seder: You’ll never believe who is now in on the climate change conspiracy.

Jon asks Neil deGrasse Tyson an important question.

Thom: Corporations to America, “We own you”.

Mental Floss: 101 amazing facts.

SlateTV: Leaked 2016 campaign ad.

John Oliver: Patents:

Eighty-year-old Seattle man returns to Boston to run the marathon.

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

Jon announces his last episode hosting The Daily Show.

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

Oh hey, another round of arrests for drugs and other minor violations downtown. I’m sure unlike a few years ago, this time, this time, this time, we’ve solved it.

And to be clear, that part of Pike-Pine can be really sketchy, and of course they are going to arrest people in that area for selling crack, meth, and other drugs. I’m not sure what the solution is here, but it can’t just be lock them up and throw away the key. I praised the police for the Law Enforcement Assisted Diversion program a few weeks ago. If the people they arrested here can get some help of that kind, it might be a net positive for them. That’s a big if, and one I’m not at all confident about given the coverage I’ve seen so far.

Still, even then, I’m not sure how it solves the underlying problem for the neighborhood. A war-on-drugs, lock-’em-up approach isn’t going to get addicts and small time street dealers the help they need. And in the long term, it’ll either go back to the way it was or move the dealing to somewhere else.

– Even the tiniest little bit of disclosure is too much for the Senate Republicans

– Abstinence only education is such a problem.

– Wow, congrats to Tom Tomorrow

– Southern Baptists did not get slavery wrong because they believed in “biblical inerrancy.” Their doctrine of biblical inerrancy was created to defend and sustain being wrong about slavery.

– The Great Meritocracy Race

Okay, so it’s not exactly statistically meaningful or predictive, but socialist city council member Kshama Sawant kicked ass last night at the 43rd Legislative District Democrats’ annual straw poll, winning 145 votes, more than twice the 70 votes of second-place finisher, Urban League president Pamela Banks. Former Equal Rights Washington director Rod Hearne came in third with 59 votes, followed by Morgan Beach with 52.

There’s been more than a little wishful thinking on the part of some establishment Dems that Sawant is on shaky ground with rank and file Democratic voters, but you wouldn’t know it from her reception last night. Sawant was surrounded by well-wishers all night long, while her challengers had to put a little effort into their mingling. If their bylaws didn’t prevent the 43rd Dems from endorsing a non-Democrat, I’m pretty sure she’d easily win the LD’s endorsement.

The fact is that few Democratic politicians speak to the values of the party’s progressive base as directly as Sawant does. So it shouldn’t really be a surprise that so many Dems are willing to overlook her socialist label.

– Happy Earth Day. Did you get your Earth a present? I got mine a small moon. Earth said it was nice, but I think that Earth was hoping for another comet.

– OK *now* I’m going to run some red lights on my bike.

– Most of these people would be an improvement over Clark.

– Rand Paul has a Rand Paul problem.

– I hope they’re not texting! may be the funniest thing I’ve ever read.

A levy swap isn’t on its own a horrible thing. Poor districts should still be able to educate their children. But in the absence of new money, it’s just taking money from districts that have been doing a better job educating children, if because they can afford it or if they’re more willing to pay. Goldy explained this ad nauseum when Rob McKenna was running and losing on levy swaps.

I’m happy to pay for education in the whole state. Let’s fund significantly more education at the state level. I’m all for it! Ideally with an income tax, but absent that, the most progressive tax we can get through the legislature.

But what we shouldn’t do is take money away from some districts or force the Puget Sound to pay for it while the rest of the state doesn’t. And that’s what a levy swap will do. As long as that’s the GOP position, it’s never going to fly.

“This would be the biggest property tax increase in state history,” said Sen. Kevin Ranker, D-Orcas Island, adding that the latest estimates show residents facing the biggest jump in their property taxes would be in the Puget Sound region, while some getting the biggest break would be in Eastern Washington and other rural parts of the state.

Most property owners in Spokane-area school districts would see a drop in their local property taxes over the four years needed to phase in the changes, although the amounts vary because of significant differences in current school district levies and the complicated laws that govern them.

Property taxes in Spokane School District, for example, would go down most years between 2018 and 2021 – as much as $1.80 per $1,000 of assessed value in 2021 – but up by .01 per $1,000 in 2019.

Ranker and other Senate Democrats have a competing plan designed to address the same problem of a system the state Supreme Court says is unconstitutional: using local tax money to pay for a basic part of public education, the salary of classroom teachers. Their solution is a tax increase, plain and simple: a capital gains tax on any resident who collects more than $250,000 a year on investment earnings. Money raised by that tax would be used to replace the money local districts now contribute to teacher salaries. That amount varies from district to district, but the amount a district receives from the state’s capital gains tax they would lower the amount they could collect from local taxpayers, so everyone would get a property tax reduction and only about 7,500 residents would pay the capital gains tax.

Neither one has everything I would want, but at least one actually has new money for education. If the problem is that there isn’t enough money for education, that seems like the thing at the outset you should deal with. I don’t understand how you can try to take education dollars from Seattle and Bellevue and say you’re supporting education statewide.

Please join us for an “Earth Day Eve” edition of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. Our starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks stop by earlier for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings happening this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities, Vancouver, WA, and Shelton chapters also meet. On Wednesday, the Bellingham, Burien, and Spokane chapters meet. And the Woodinville and Kent chapters meet on Thursday.

There are 191 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon and two in Idaho. Chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

– A geyser of money worthy of Old Faithful

– No, William Shatner, you may not have our water. (h/t)

– Kirkland is an interesting, if dispiriting, case study in trying to get residential parking requirements right.

– I liked learning a bit about some of the long-shot candidates to fill in Clark’s seat.

– I would go to the museum of nice players.