Goldy

From the Seattle Times:  “Reichert, Burner debate over lunch.”

Huh.  Surely they must have talked about more substantive issues than that?

A new music video from Seattle’s own Julie Mains.

UPDATE [Lee]: Palin will be dropping the puck at the Flyers home opener against the Rangers on Saturday night in Philly. Another hockey mom at her side or not, she’s gonna get booed out of the arena.

I had the opportunity to tag along with members of the real press as we covered Sen. Patty Murray, Mayor Greg Nickels and other local dignitaries on the first semi-public test run of Sound Transit’s Link Light Rail, scheduled to start service in July 2009.  Most of the time I hung out in the back of the train with the other bloggers, but when Sen. Murray walked by I just had to snag her for a couple questions about our current economic crisis.

Specifically, I asked her if there was any appetite in Congress to invest in fiscal stimulus for projects like the one we were riding on, and she said that there have been discussions about a package that would invest in infrastructure, particularly transportation, because it puts people to work immediately, but that a recent bill was blocked by the Republicans.  (All the more reason to send more and better Democrats to Congress.)

So I guess the answer was “yes,” but she didn’t sound too confident.  Near the end of the interview I asked whether there might be some federal money forthcoming to help the states with their ballooning budget deficits and she said that they were already getting such requests, but “I think everybody recognizes that this is a time when everybody is going to have to cut back.”

Huh.  By most accounts our nation now has several trillion dollars worth of critical public infrastructure—roads, bridges, transit, water, sewer, etc.—that needs to be repaired, replaced or expanded over the next two decades, much of it built as public works projects during the Great Depression.  As our economy worsens and our banking industry collapses, it may very well be left up to the federal government once again to keep America working.

With all the focus on the presidential debate, you may be surprised to learn that there was another debate today, this one between Darcy Burner and Dave Reichert at Bellevue’s Meydenbauer Center.  Josh was there, and will post a firsthand report here on HA later, but for the moment you can take a gander at the transcript of Andrew’s live blog.

(FYI, I spoke with Andrew briefly and felt confident that Darcy won… not that it means anything if most voters don’t see it.)

UPDATE:
The Times and the P-I have their quick takes on today’s debate.  I was particularly struck by this excerpt from the P-I:

“I still look on myself as Joe Blow from Kent, Washington, a cop who came to Congress,” Reichert said in his closing remarks.

A) He’s been in Congress for two years; it’s time Reichert started running on his congressional record rather than his self-inflated reputation as “the Sheriff,” and B)  I don’t want just some “Joe Blow” representing me in Congress, especially during a time of crisis… I want somebody exceptional, and Reichert has done absolutely nothing to show us that he is anything but just another “Joe Blow.”

Sure, President Bill Clinton may have lied about a blow job, but at least he didn’t fuck the economy.

Oops.  A window into McCain’s post traumatic stress disorder?  Or is this just the sort of mental lapse we should expect from a 72-year-old man undertaking a grueling run for president?

I’ll be on KUOW’s The Conversation today at around 1:15PM, talking about last night’s presidential debate.  94.9 FM… tune in.

No doubt I like the results of SurveyUSA’s post-debate poll of Washington state voters better than that of the first debate, but it still strikes me as a load of bullshit.  Two weeks ago SurveyUSA told us that WA bucked the national trend, with respondents giving McCain a narrow 40%-38% edge on the question of who won the first debate.  After the second presidential debate we’re told that Washingtonians mirrored their national counterparts, handing Obama a decisive 54%-29% victory.

Yeah… whatever.

My problem though is not with the results—I suppose either represents a believable margin—but rather with the sample, which seems to indicate Washington’s citizens are by far the most politically engaged in the nation, with over 63% of WA adults supposedly watching the first debate, and now a stunning 74% of those interviewed claiming to have watched the second.

Wow.  That would be astounding, if true.  But unfortunately for SurveyUSA, Neilsen, whose business it is to measure TV viewership, reports that only about a third of WA households were tuned into the debate last night, up from about 30% for the first contest.  And once again the Seattle-Tacoma market ranks amongst the lowest top-55 markets in the nation.

Of course, Neilsen and SurveyUSA aren’t quite measuring the same thing, but when you look at the rough math I did last time around, it’s clear that these two sets of conflicting results can’t possibly mesh.

Not that this means anything, but it does make one wonder about the dataset for SurveyUSA’s other polls.

The New York Times editorial board is appalled by the tone and content of the McCain/Palin campaign.  And it takes an awful lot to appall a New Yorker…

It is a sorry fact of American political life that campaigns get ugly, often in their final weeks. But Senator John McCain and Gov. Sarah Palin have been running one of the most appalling campaigns we can remember.

They have gone far beyond the usual fare of quotes taken out of context and distortions of an opponent’s record — into the dark territory of race-baiting and xenophobia. Senator Barack Obama has taken some cheap shots at Mr. McCain, but there is no comparison.

It is a sorry fact of the news biz that editorialists too often attempt to balance the transgressions of one candidate by pointing to the transgressions of their opponent, even when there is no reasonable comparison.  But in recent weeks the McCain/Palin campaign has simply slipped too far over to the dark side to make such journalistic equivalency even remotely believable.

Ms. Palin, in particular, revels in the attack. Her campaign rallies have become spectacles of anger and insult. “This is not a man who sees America as you see it and how I see America,” Ms. Palin has taken to saying.

That line follows passages in Ms. Palin’s new stump speech in which she twists Mr. Obama’s ill-advised but fleeting and long-past association with William Ayers, founder of the Weather Underground and confessed bomber. By the time she’s done, she implies that Mr. Obama is right now a close friend of Mr. Ayers — and sympathetic to the violent overthrow of the government. The Democrat, she says, “sees America, it seems, as being so imperfect that he’s palling around with terrorists who would target their own country.”

Her demagoguery has elicited some frightening, intolerable responses. A recent Washington Post report said at a rally in Florida this week a man yelled “kill him!” as Ms. Palin delivered that line and others shouted epithets at an African-American member of a TV crew.

They called the sound man a “nigger” and commanded him to “sit down, boy.”  But then, that’s the sort of visceral response Palin is shooting for.

In a way, we should not be surprised that Mr. McCain has stooped so low, since the debate showed once again that he has little else to talk about. He long ago abandoned his signature issues of immigration reform and global warming; his talk of “victory” in Iraq has little to offer a war-weary nation; and his Reagan-inspired ideology of starving government and shredding regulation lies in tatters on Wall Street.

But surely, Mr. McCain and his team can come up with a better answer to that problem than inciting more division, anger and hatred.

No, probably not.  What we are seeing is the logical conclusion of the Rovian strategies that secured narrow electoral victories by exploiting the cultural tensions in an otherwise closely divided nation.  As the failures of the Bush administration and his Republican Party have become too overwhelming to ignore, and have started to impact the day to day lives of average Americans, large segments of the electorate are shifting to the Democrats, even if only because they are not Republicans.  Thus as the political divide widens, the obvious Rovian response is to turn up the divisive rhetoric in a last ditch effort to keep swing voters in line through their weapons of choice:  fear, anger and hate.

It will be interesting to see how Republicans respond to a second straight cycle of devastating congressional losses, and a likely Obama victory.  It would be best for both them and the nation if they abandon Palin, and the dangerous fascistic streak she clearly embodies.

I’m at the Ale House to watch the debate, and I kinda sorta plan to live blog, that is, in between bites of my fish & chips, and assuming the wireless network holds up. But I just want to start out by saying that I absolutely hate this stupid-ass “town hall” format. The first debate, with Jim Lehrer actually asking a few follow up questions, but mostly allowing the candidates to go back and forth at each other, was the best and most informative debate I’ve seen… well… ever. I’m not expecting much substance tonight.

Anyway, I’ll be updating the post with my comments, please share your comments in the thread.

UPDATE (6:08):
John McCain has a secret plain to end the economic crisis. And by the way, when McCain says “we don’t have trust and confidence,” isn’t that dangerously close to Jimmy Carter’s “crisis of confidence”…?

UPDATE (6:12):
McCain thinks the questioner doesn’t even know who Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is, because you know, he’s just a dumb voter. So he needs to explain this all very slowly and very carefully and with very small words.

UPDATE (6:18):
McCain: “Americans are the best importers in the world.” No doubt about that.

UPDATE (6:25):
Question: When McCain says “my friends,” is he referring to Facebook?

UPDATE (6:30):
McCain wants a spending freeze except for defense, veterans affairs and, you know, “other stuff”. How bold.

UPDATE (6:35):
Does it really matter what Obama and McCain actually say? It seems like CNN’s dial test squiggly line goes up when Obama speaks, and down for McCain, pretty much regardless of the content.

UPDATE (6:38):
Really, what is the point of a debate in which the moderator actively prevents the participants from engaging in a substantive discussion. Fuck the rules, Tom.

UPDATE (6:50):
Okay, perhaps I have a fetish on this, but I really wish the candidates would answer the fucking question. “Should health care be a commodity?” That’s a yes or no question. There’s nothing particularly wrong with Obama’s answer except it’s not really one, and I don’t expect McCain to be anymore direct.

UPDATE (6:52):
McCain: “You really have identified one of the main issues facing America…” but I’m not going to answer the question either. Okay, I’ll answer the question for both you: health coverage should not be a commodity.

UPDATE (6:55):
I’m watching CNN’s squiggly lines, and it raises one question: who the hell chooses orange and green as the distinguishing colors when 10% of the men are red green color blind? Thanks a fucking lot.

UPDATE (6:57):
“Is health care a privilege, a right or a responsibility?” Obama answers, “it is a right.” Finally. I direct answer. (And bonus, one I agree with.)

UPDATE (7:01):
According to the dial test audience, Americans like to be told how great we are, but we don’t particularly like it when McCain uses that to attack Obama.

UPDATE (7:04):
Obama needs to use the words “orgy” and “troops” in the same sentence. The dial test audience loves that.

UPDATE (7:12):
McCain: “My hero is Teddy Roosevelt.” Which is a good answer, say, if the question is about the environment or regulation. But when the question is on foreign policy… um… not so much.

UPDATE (7:13):
I disagree with Obama: Tom Brokaw sucks.

UPDATE (7:16):
McCain has a secret plan to catch bin Laden.

UPDATE (7:18):
Have you noticed that sometimes, when McCain finishes his answer, the squiggly lines of go up when Brokaw starts talking? McCain risks coming in third.

UPDATE (7:22):
Dollars to donuts, the pundits won’t be so quick to call this debate one way or the other… until the snap polls come in. Not after being burned in the last two debates. (Shhh… Obama wins.)

UPDATE (7:30):
Brokaw: “We’ve come to the last question.” Millions of American viewers: “Thank God!”

MY IMPRESSION:
This debate sucked, and would have been intolerable without beer. But more importantly, whoever Americans ultimately determine won the debate (shh… Obama), there’s no way McCain did what he needed to do to shake up this race and seize the momentum. Therefore, Obama wins. (Shhh.)

RANDOM OBSERVATION:
CNN this huge panel of what, ten analysts discussing the debate… and they’re all white? Really?

INSTAPOLLS:
CBS: Obama, 39-27. CNN: Obama, 54-30. Only an assassin’s bullet can win this race for McCain.

Some of you may have noticed an ad on HA for the “Pickens Plan” for energy independence, an initiative by oil tycoon T. Boone Pickens to wean our nation from foreign oil.  And so I thought this might be a good time to reiterate HA’s advertising policy.

See, despite the fact that Pickens’ investments in wind energy are probably good thing (I think), that doesn’t erase his long history as a financier of right-wing ideologues, and his role as one of the major backers of the Swift Boat smear campaign that likely sunk John Kerry’s presidential prospects.  It also doesn’t detract from his cynical investment of millions of dollars in California’s Prop 10, which would tap CA’s already stressed state coffers to boost his natural gas business.

Pickens is no progressive, and just shouldn’t be trusted.  But I’m happy to take his money nonetheless.

See, here at HA we have a very simple advertising policy:  we’ll take paid ads from pretty much all comers, Republicans and Democrats, conservatives and liberals alike.  We won’t accept ads that amount to blatantly deceptive astroturfing, though I’ve only rejected one thus far.  And we won’t accept ads I find pornographic or patently offensively… but as my regular readers know, that’s a pretty low bar.  Basically, if you have the money, I’ll take your ad.  But if I really don’t like it, don’t be surprised if I go out of my way to trash it.  You know, like this post about the highly questionable ad for the Pickens Plan.

See, not only did Pickens finance the Swift Boat ads, Mentzer Media Services, Inc, the company that placed this web ad, also placed most of the Swift Boat ads as well… a service for which they made millions of dollars.

And so, considering HA’s wall between advertising and editorial, the only responsible course of action was to take Pickens money, and then give a free ad to The General to mercilessly mock it.  So that’s exactly what I did.

Yup, that’s my advertising policy, and I’m sticking to it.

Today is Now You Know Dino Day, a statewide event sponsored by NARAL/Pro-Choice Washington, who wants all our state’s voters to know the truth about Dino Rossi’s stance on reproductive rights.  For example, did you know that Rossi:

• worked against I-120, which codified Roe v. Wade into Washington state law?
• voted NO on a bill that would require health insurance companies that cover prescriptions such as Viagra for men to cover birth control for women?
• sponsored a bill seeking federal money for ineffective abstinence-only sex-education for Washington schools?
• believes pharmacists should be able to refuse to fill doctor-prescribed prescriptions based on non-medical, personal reasons?
• compares women’s health care to sports drink preferences?

One of the more disturbing things I’ve seen in poll after poll as that more than a third of pro-choice women don’t know that Republicans Dino Rossi and Dave Reichert are anti-choice, opposing not just access to safe, legal abortions, but to contraception and medically accurate sex education.  That’s why over 300 volunteers in 15 cities across the state are waving signs during evening rush hour tonight to let voters know the truth about Rossi… that he is bad for the women of Washington state.

If you want to join the effort, go to the Now You Know Dino website for more information.

The McCain/Palin campaign might want to think twice before heading down that dangerous path toward guilt by association, as the candidates at the top of the Republican ticket have plenty of guilty associations of their own, some of which might even be fresh news to even the most attentive voters.

For example I had no idea about John McCain’s shady associations with the Iran Contra scandal until reading about it this morning in Politico, where former Tacoma News Tribune reporter Ken Vogel (one of the few ex-reporters around here to move up in the biz instead of moving out) sheds new light on McCain’s association with John Singlaub and the US Council for World Freedom.

Since the mid-1980s, there’s been almost no attention paid to John McCain’s long-ago association with a controversial group implicated in a secretive plot to supply arms to Nicaraguan militia groups during the Iran-Contra affair.

But now, with the Republican presidential candidate stepping up his negative blitz against Democratic opponent Barack Obama, some Democrats are hoping that the group – the U.S. Council for World Freedom, and its founder, John Singlaub – will become for McCain what Bill Ayers has become for Obama: a fleeting past association used as ammunition for political broadsides.

[…] “This guilt by association path is going to be trouble ultimately for the McCain campaign,” Democratic strategist Paul Begala said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “John McCain sat on the board of a very right-wing organization, it was the U.S. Council for World Freedom, it was chaired by a guy named John Singlaub, who wound up involved in the Iran contra scandal. It was an ultra conservative, right-wing group.”

McCain later claimed that he “disassociated himself” from the group after learning of its secret program to arm the Contras, circumventing a Congressional ban on aiding the rebels, but he never informed authorities of these illegal activities.  And he never seemed too bothered by the group’s known anti-Semitic leanings.

Singlaub founded the council in Phoenix in November, 1981, as the U.S. branch of the World Anti-Communist League, which he also helped run for a time. The league billed itself as a supporter of “pro-Democratic resistance movements fighting communist totalitarianism.” But the Anti-Defamation League in 1981 alleged that the anti-Communist league also had had “increasingly become a gathering place, a forum, a point of contact, for extremists, racists and anti-Semites.”

An aide to McCain told Politico that “McCain has a long and consistent and strong record on issues involving Israel and he would never be associated with anything that was anti-Semitic in any way,” but, as Sarah Palin’s church has proven, being pro-Israel and pro-Jew are not the same thing.

After being sparked by a brief comment Sunday from Democratic strategist Paul Begala on NBC’s Meet the Press, the Singlaub story is quickly gaining some media traction on a path McCain may soon regret choosing.