Locally this morning, none of the top five headlines of the Seattle Times and P-I match each other, which is a clue as to how slow a news day it is. It’ll likely stay this way through the new year. The holiday fill is particularly in full force over at the Times, whose Danny Westneat informs us this morning that “Jolly isn’t mandatory.” For the other side of this breaking controversy, KOMO-TV last night gave us “Christmas will still be merry.” (We crabby secularists at HA tend to side with Westneat.)
Meanwhile, what’s actually going on in, um, news? Not much. A barge ran aground at Elliot Bay Marina, and nothing leaked. After much lobbying by the Fremont businesses that must deal with the splattered remains, Gov. Gregoire is including in her new budget $1.4 million for a suicide prevention fence on Aurora Bridge.
And, in a P-I column likely to irritate the faithful (but a sentiment a lot of local Democratic activists & pols privately agree with), Joel Connelly calls today for Jim McDermott to retire in 2008. Why? Because Baghdad Jim is broke (having just lost his long-running court case), ineffective, and carries no weight even with his own party leaders. Connelly even suggests some possible successors (all Democrats, natch):
Five names come immediately to mind: state Sen. Ed Murray, ex-City Councilwoman Martha Choe, attorney Jenny Durkan, state Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, or — if he quells a midlife crisis — Ron Sims.
Nationally, we learn this morning, courtesy the New York Times, that
At least four top White House lawyers took part in discussions with the C.I.A. about whether to destroy videotapes showing the secret interrogations of two Qaeda operatives.
And, to absolutely nobody’s surprise, the FCC voted to allow newspaper cross-ownership of TV and radio stations in the nation’s top 20 markets (including Seattle).
Oh, and Senate Democrats caved on Iraq spending again. Yawn.
Hey, Joel Connelly is still good for something after all. Who knew?
There ought to be a suicide prevention fence around HA to prevent the Happy Hooligans from leaping to their splattery deaths each time Dubya breaks Congressional Dems to his will.
Guess what: No matter who is elected in 2008 – Republican, Democrat, Green, Gray, or whatever – those facts won’t change. The new president will get into the Oval Office and discover certain inalienable truths such as NSA surveillance is vitally necessary for the protection and security of the people of the United States, combatting Islamic fundamentalism-based terrorism is the overriding issue of our time, immigration must be addressed first and foremost by gaining control of our borders and dealing harshly with illegal aliens who violate the criminal law (i.e., no more “sanctuary city” crap and checking the immigration status of anyone who is arrested by any law enforcement agency must be mandatory), and most of the twaddle fobbed off by liberals is cotton candy-level policy.
Oh…and increasingly the netroot/DailyKus/MoveOn.org/Ha POV ill be seen as Simpsons-like in its maturity and Southpark-level in its sophistication (“Someone killed Goldy!”)…and ignored even by a President Obama.
Welcome to marginalization.
The Piper
Ed Murray is the only skilled elected official to consider to replace Jim Mc D.
Experience in law making, smart, good progressive politics. Tons of connection with the 7th District at all levels, and as a gay guy, a big support base to work with.
The lady from the 36th is a nut case, joke to have her on any list.
Piper Scott @ 2: As a former intelligence analyst I can tell you with certainty that the NSA never turned it’s data collection tools on US citizens, and was very successful working within the bounds of the law. This administrations assertion that national security requires allowing the NSA to spy on US citizens is pure bunk. A scare tactic used to justify their desire to collect information on political opponents. In the 7 years of this administration we’ve witnessed an incredible upheaval in the intelligence community precisely because it’s being politicized at all levels. It feels like the totalitarian and authoritarian regimes we’ve been fighting against, and that makes a lot of people very very uncomfortable.
I’m shocked! Mrs. Gregoire wants to waste money for a “suicide prevention” device on a bridge? Gimme a fucking break! If one wants to take his or her own life, let them. Not the business of the State to have wasteful spending for such a ridiculous idea. What’s next; make all buildings no more than ten feet high so no one can jump off to their death? Here we go a’ tax-and-spend, tax-and-spend, tax-and-spend….all the live long day.
Mark1@5
It’s not the jumpers, it’s the people and businesses below the bridge who need the fence. It’s only a matter of time before someone jumps right through a business’s roof or lands on a pedestrian or boat. It’s a dangerous and gruesome situation.
It’s Joel’s perennial rant, with the perennial errors and omissions.
ewp @ 4
Reason is completely lost on Bull Pooper who extracts scant meaning from life by tarting up the same old bellicose, sclerotic neo-con talking points.
Geov: Being a secularist does it pain your face to smile and say Merry Christmas knowing the first 6 letters of the second word has the King of Kings in it?
#8: Any you don’t wake up in the morning, jump on your PC, read the latest Kos or Morons headlines, pray to the god of Soros and begin tarting up the same old bellicose, sclerotic whack-job left wing sticky white kool-aid talking points?
So ewp: Is that how Hilary used those 900 FBI files to “justify their desire to collect information on political opponents.”?
Wondering out loud…
Because Baghdad Jim is broke
Having the holiday blues Paul? Why play into the right wing? How about “Sunny Jim”?
To everyone: please spare some change for Jim McDermott. A small bit of it will go to the thief John Boehner but most will go to his lawyers. Jim McDermott was speaking out and taking action against the perverse agenda of the right wing at a time when it needed to be done.
12 – Sorry, Geov.
pray to the god of Soros
So you say. I say you pray to Scaife, Murdoch, Moon and the rest. Don’t put false idols before the man upstairs you profess to serve on Saturdays.
Hey I found some new rich right wing dipshits you might enjoy PSilly – Philip Anschutz and H. F. Ahmanson Jr.
Quite a cavalcade of rich wingnuts you worship, PSilly. Polytheism suits you.
I guess to
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
illegally recorded telephone conversations are acceptable law breaking activities. Unfortunately the US Court system says otherwise. Having a police scanner in your car is illegal too.
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
The Electronic Communications Privacy Act (ECPA) in 1986 made it illegal to listen to mobile phones.
But to you anything is legal against your political enemies. Remember this happened in 1997 before Bush, so they learned it from Congressional Donks.
Hey Mr. “I am Puddybud, Not”:
Scratch Anschutz off the list. He owns 16% of Qwest who balked at the Big Brother program of that other idol you worship – the chimpanzee in the White House.
Working at cross purposes doesn’t suit your polytheism.
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
In Florida it is illegal to have a police scanner in your car.
You can clarify it your single celled organism called your brain in the ANARC Guide to U. S. Monitoring Laws ANARC Publications, P.O. Box 462, Northfield, MN 55057.
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
I am monotheistic. I believe in the Creator God like Michael said.
Merry Christmas Michael.
Somehow November 10, 2006 rings in my mind of a goodbye from Clueless that never happened.
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
Still here slinging BULLSHITTIUM!
But to you anything is legal against your political enemies.
Another brain fart. I don’t recall Jim McDermott being prosecuted by the DOJ and any other jurisdiction.
One late-breaking news item for the SLUT-obsessed. One week out of the gate, the SLUT had its first vehicular collision this morning. It sounds like it was the SUV’s fault.
It sounds more like an allegory than a news story.
http://seattletimes.nwsource.c.....ar19m.html
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
You didn’t refute your prayers to the god of Soros.
Typical, sad but typical!
Going shopping to continue stabilizing the economy.
Did you see the unemployment figgers in WA state dropped another .1%? But to the bad economy Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiots ™ the skiy is falling down.
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™
But I will be back all of the above.
@12…YLB…
So, was that Skunky Jim with the hand-lettered “Will traffic in hot wiretaps for food” sign on a certain freeway overpass this morning?
Seems OK by you to traffic in unlawfully intercepted telephone communications when it suits Democratic Party purposes, but when the Bush Administration engages in surveillance designed to protect the lives and security of the American people and prevent another massive loss of life ala 9/11 – that hasn’t been definitively ruled improper by any precedent-setting federal court, BTW – you’re all for hanging the lot from the nearest lamp post.
And this is because…???
Because you don’t care about the security issues, you only care about the political ones! Well, DUH!
I do, though, hope GasBaghdad Jim tells Joel Connelly, who was senile before he became senile, to pound sand; Skunky Jim is the best free entertainment in town. And as long as he’s an ineffective pork-barreler, there’ll simply be one less pig suckling on the public teat sticking us with boats the navy doesn’t want and t-shirts that melt on the bodies of Marines.
Poor boy is the epitome of marginalized, ineffective and typical Seattle thinking. No wonder you’re the political laughing stock of the nation.
BTW…not even Mike Lowry’s ghost festooned with chains and locks or the Spirits of Christmas Past, Present, and Future are sufficient to rehab Skunky’s latest turd in the wassail bowl in his refusal to support a House of Representatives measure honoring the Christian faith and Christmas.
Bah…humbug!
Another bit of foolishness for the nation to look upon the region with ridicule and contempt…like chimps in the zoo!
Is there no Clarence in need of his wings to visit Skunky, or is he doomed forever to be a Mr. Potter-wannabe?
Hmmm…come to think of it…he does bear a striking resemblance to Lionel Barrymore.
BTW…in defence of Geov…I see a lot of George Bailey in him, so, Puddy, cut him maybe a dram weight of slack.
Merry Christmas to all! It is the Most Wonderful Time of the Year!
The Piper
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™ @21:
What does that have to do with McDimWitt? He lost. Send you pennies to him now as he needs it BIGTIME
Funny how all the freeper trolls on this site, and that includes you Puddybud and Piper Scott, have the same response to anyone who challenges some BS they try to pass off as fact, and that’s to say Clinton did X. If you can’t support your original statement, then just shut up already.
Piper: Aye: A Dram it is. But I’d like to see his face crack as he says Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to you too Piper.
You didn’t refute your prayers to the god of Soros.
And what does “refute” mean? Let me tell what I think it means: I don’t care.
Because? I don’t take orders from you.
EWP@27: I posted that which happened first in the past so refresh your single celled mind. The FBI files are 1990s happenings. Are you have date deficiency issues?
Most Republicans learn their dirty tricks from the hucksters you have in politics or running for POTUS!
YLB – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Libby Blatherer – The Clueless One ™ AKA
Yelling Loser Bozo – The Clueless One ™ AKA
M2I2 Malleable Minded Ignorant Idiot ™ @29:
You don’t need to take orders from me to perform that which cums naturally to you – drinking the sticky white kool-aid at the source!
Wow, it’s troll-stinky in here! Phew!
Seems OK by you to traffic in unlawfully intercepted telephone communications when it suits Democratic Party purposes, but when the Bush Administration engages in surveillance designed to protect the lives and security of the American people and prevent another massive loss of life ala 9/11
If Jim McDermott broke the law, why wasn’t he prosecuted?
And as I recall because of Jim’s actions another right wing loser by the name of Gringrich had to cough up what, 300k? Nothing wrong going on there!
I could care less what losers like you think of Seattle. Let that hate keep you warm this holiday season. I feel for you.
@27…ewp…
Uhm…please show me any reference, prior to this post, I have made to any Clinton in this thread.
Word is that Bill loves playing Santa at the mall…All the delightful little dollies then get to sit on his lap and experience his North Pole while whispering in his ear how many cigars they want this particular Santa to bring them that evening (why wait until Christmas Eve???).
In the meantime, HRC is stuck playing the role of C.S. Lewis’ White Witch (think Chronicles of Narnia) slogging through the snows of Iowa and New Hampshire and looking older and colder all the time.
Heard something fascinating the other day: HRC’s poll numbers are dropping because people are starting to pay attention to her, and the more people get to know her, the more they either grow to dislike her or remind themselves why they disliked her in the first place. With her, familiarity does indeed breed contempt.
The Piper
when the Bush Administration engages in surveillance designed to protect the lives and security of the American people
Terrific. Another talking point but let’s make sure this is the case. Trust but verify, right? Engage a special prosecutor to see if any laws were broken. Congressional hearings and investigation to review the programs and judge their effectiveness and to what degree they respected the civil liberties of American citizens.
If everything is proper and above board, there shouldn’t be a problem.
What do the the Bushies have to hide? Uh.. Probably everything.
And, in a P-I column likely to irritate the faithful (but a sentiment a lot of local Democratic activists & pols privately agree with), Joel Connelly calls today for Jim McDermott to retire in 2008.
Local Democratic activists, pols, and Joel Connelly – a trifecta of irrelevancies – carp incessantly about this very popular member of the House. Do you have to join the dark side with the Baghdad epithet? Aside from the fact that Jim was absolutely right when he made the comments that got him so tagged, what do you get out of joining the O’Reilly brigade?
@36…HT…
A stripper in a frat house is very popular, too, but that doesn’t make her a force for good in the community.
All that’s missing from Skunky Jim’s outfit are the floppy shoes, rubber nose and fright wig; he’s a clown! And he increasingly is ridiculed throughout the country for his clownish antics. Give him a seltzer bottle, and he’s good to go!
That’s why us wingnuts love him so! The more lefties pimp GasBaghdad Jim, the more your’re tarred with his brush.
No skin off my nose…
The Piper
@35…YLB…
Terrific…your answer is a partisan hack special prosecutor to wander through highly classified intelligence data and leak it to a foaming-at-the-mouth press? Is that stupid, or what?
You have yet to identify any American citizens who’ve been the subject of any unlawful surveillance. So far, your weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth is…THEORETICAL IN NATURE! You can’t show me a plethora of plaintiffs penumbering their way through U.S. District Courts around the country, so where’s your beef?
You won’t even acknowledge that the threat of terrorism is real. From what I can tell, you could give a rip one way or the other; what’s the deaths of a few thousand Americans one way or the other to you? To quote Scrooge, “It only serves to decrease the surplus population.”
The Piper
Somehow November 10, 2006 rings in my mind of a goodbye from Clueless that never happened.
Right here he says 2004:
http://www.horsesass.org/?p=3984#comment-720365
Which is it? Oh, nevermind.
The businesses under Aurora can just get insurance.
And suicide fences are plain ugly.
Suicide can happen from any high place.
What is next, large concrete walls on the Magnolia Bluffs?
@40…Marcel…
Fences probably won’t fly since suicidal jumpers will simply declare their efforts performance art (colorful blecchh’s upon the sidewalk and street), apply for National Endowment for the Arts subsidies, and claim First Amendment protection for their artistic expression, which, in this town, guarantees them editorial support from the P-I and other local glitterati.
Soon, these urban masterpieces will be jackhammered out (intact, of course) and displayed at SAM or taken on traveling exhibits to elemenary schools throughout the area in an effort to inspire kids to become artists themselves.
Expose yourself to art…
The Piper
Terrific…your answer is a partisan hack special prosecutor to wander through highly classified intelligence data and leak it to a foaming-at-the-mouth press? Is that stupid, or what?
You mean like a Ken Starr? No way. Lawrence Walsh isn’t available. How about Fitz? Now there’s a sane Republican.
You have yet to identify any American citizens who’ve been the subject of any unlawful surveillance. So far, your weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth is…THEORETICAL IN NATURE! You can’t show me a plethora of plaintiffs penumbering their way through U.S. District Courts around the country, so where’s your beef?
We’ve made some progress. We’ve gone from no problem to one that is at least theoretical in nature.
I’m aware of suits from ACLU and EFF and I’m sure there’s others but the bottom line is, I have a right to know what my government is doing especially if it involves me. And I want my government to account when they have broken the law.
John Ashcroft didn’t seem to think what the White House was doing was legal. And he’s about as right wing as it gets.
Lastly I heard on the radio that a couple of vegans in Georgia I think were picketing a honey baked ham outlet. Before you laugh, they were being surveilled by a couple of guys in a unmarked suv. Turned out one guy was local police and the other was a homeland security detective. Great use of my tax dollars. If the government is that hot and bothered about vegans, who else are they going to target? The people have a right to know these things so they can make the best choices come election time.
Here’s the link:
http://rawstory.com/news/2005/....._0922.html
You won’t even acknowledge that the threat of terrorism is real. From what I can tell, you could give a rip one way or the other; what’s the deaths of a few thousand Americans one way or the other to you? To quote Scrooge, “It only serves to decrease the surplus population.”
I acknowledge that it is real but I believe it can be dealt with in other ways than going back to the fabled Nixon days. Look, people inside the NSA and intelligence community have leaked this stuff. If THEY are doing this, the situation has to be bad which was the point of ewp’s first comment up above.
There was more factual information about the mortgage crisis and the ethanol-fuel scam in last night’s episode of Boston Legal than all the network news organizations have offered up in six months.
@42…YLB…
A problem that is theoretical in nature is a problem that doesn’t exist.
Unless and until you can allege actual damage or injury to a named human being, you have no standing to complain legally. The ACLU knows this, and it knows its legal complaints will get the royal boot because of it.
If you’re doing something unlawful, you don’t have the right to know what your government is doing to keep tabs on you.
Additionally, we’re talking about surveillance of electronic communications between foreign-based suspected terrorist individuals or entities, who have ZERO Constitutional rights or expectations of privacy – that’s what spies do…spy – and it’s communications to them that are intercepted. So, if you want not to be bothered by all this, don’t call your cousin in Pakistan who’s a Junior Jihad or your old college roomie helping to put IED’s together in the Sudan.
Really pretty simple.
And vegans in Georgia – goofy and weird though they may be – aren’t relevent to this discussion…unless, that is, they’ve got ObL on cell phone speed dial.
Just because you FEEL (I won’t use the word, “think”) your rights have been bruised, doesn’t make it necessarily so.
The Piper
44 – I’m done with you pooper. You are a denialist of the first order.
You have no problem with a homeland security detective keeping tabs on vegans? Way to go team to catch the Al-Qaeda and forestall the next 911!
You have no problems with the Nixonian practices of government agencies wiretapping the communications of american citizens without judicial oversight in clear violation of the FISA laws?
I did not use the word “feel” in post 42. In a previous comment, I implied that I empathized with your plight – the plight of being in the grip of an irrational hatred of Seattle. I was about to use the word pity. I should have.
Getting back a bit to Geov’s headlines, Pooper and PuddyTortureLover should be outraged at the destruction of the torture tapes.
That would have made great splice-in for the next season of their (and the White House’s) favorite “reality tv” show – 24.
46 Nah….”24 is just the surrogate for consumption by the proletariat.
Bush gets to drool over videos of the real thing.
The Democratic “leadership” in Congress still hasn’t figured out that the reason their popularity figures are so low is not because they’re too far to the “left”.
Goober@46:
ZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzoooooooooooooooooooooo……………….