Goldy

Retired Gen. Wes Clark (former NATO Supreme Allied Commander of Europe) has emailed his rather substantial list, telling his supporters that “when one of our own is down, we have to have their back,” and urging them to contribute to Darcy Burner in the wake of her devastating house fire. He’s even set up a new Act Blue page for the purpose.

At this difficult time, Darcy needs to focus on her family as they work to get their lives back in order. That’s what she should be doing — what any of us would do after a similar tragedy.But in Darcy’s case, that means she can’t fundraise, she can’t campaign. And in an election as important and close as hers will be, every day she’s off the campaign trail puts her at a disadvantage. She needs our help.

[…] Darcy is in a tight race and represents one of our best pickup opportunities in the House. She’s going to be an advocate to bring our troops home from Iraq. She’s going to stand strong to fight warrantless wiretapping and protect the Constitution.We can’t let this tragedy stop us from adding Darcy’s voice to Congress. Though Darcy says she lost “just stuff,” she needs time with her family now.

Help me give Darcy the time she needs. Every donation provides Darcy with more time to put down the phone for fundraising and focus on her family. Contribute to Darcy’s campaign today!

You can read the full text of the email on the WesPAC website. And if Gen. Clark has Darcy’s back, shouldn’t you too? Please give today.

A birdy tells me that the Seattle Times is apparently asking a number of candidates to release their tax returns, as has CrossCut’s Austin Jenkins of Gov. Chris Gregoire and Dino Rossi. Considering the press gave Gregoire zero credit for releasing her returns in 2004, while Rossi refused, it’s hard to see why any candidate would be motivated to comply with the request this time around.

But it also strikes me as a bit hypocritical that journalists, who justifiably hold themselves up as essential elements of our democracy, should righteously demand disclosure of others that they don’t demand of themselves. I suppose I might support strengthening our state disclosure statutes so that they actually require candidates to release their tax returns, but currently… they don’t. So if journalists are going to demand that politicians expose their personal finances to greater scrutiny than required by law, I suggest they lead by example.

So here’s my offer: if Seattle Times publisher Frank Blethen releases his 2007 tax return, I’ll release mine, and, I’ll join him in publicly demanding that Dino Rossi release his.

Of course, Rossi ain’t gonna, ’cause he obviously has something to hide. But at least with our returns on the table, Frank and I can mock Rossi in good conscience for his lack of openness.

When Tim Eyman files an new initiative, his buddy in the AG’s office, Jim Pharris, pretty much lets Tim write the ballot title himself, and that’s how the initiative is generally described in the press, because you know, it’s printed on the ballot that way, and you wouldn’t want to confuse voters.  But when hundreds of volunteers work for months to get a grassroots initiative on the ballot, the ballot title suddenly isn’t good enough for the style-setters at the AP.

The AP has decided to refer to I-1000 as the “assisted suicide” measure, which not only is the term everybody knows polls the absolute worst, it is also completely inaccurate.  And confusing, because there is no “assisted suicide” measure on the ballot.  I-1000, which backers refer to as the “Death with Dignity” initiative, will appear on the ballot with the following title:

Ballot Title
Initiative Measure No. 1000 concerns allowing certain terminally ill competent adults to obtain lethal prescriptions.

This measure would permit terminally ill, competent, adult Washington residents, who are medically predicted to have six months or less to live, to request and self-administer lethal medication prescribed by a physician. Should this measure be enacted into law? Yes [ ] No [ ]

Opponents wanted the ballot title to contain the phrase “assisted suicide” but a judge determined the wording would be intentionally pejorative, which I can only assume is why the AP decided to use it.  And since the AP sets the standard for most other news organizations in the state, that’s how this measure is going to be described to voters.  It’s like handing the measure’s opponents a million bucks in free advertising, and the folks at the AP know it.

Impartial, fair and balanced objectivity… my ass.

$100,000. That’s how much we raised for Darcy Burner last week via Act Blue alone, much of it coming over a 48 hour period. Wow. Simply wow.

That’s roughly equivalent to twenty days of early July fundraising, and it has lifted a huge burden off Darcy’s shoulders as she’s taken time off from her grueling campaign schedule to tend to herself and her family after losing their house in a fire. Now, thanks to her many friends online, Darcy can devote the time she needs to getting her life back in order without giving up any ground to Dave Reichert.

So a huge thanks to the dozens of blogs nationwide who joined in this effort, and to the thousands of members of our broader netroots community for this extraordinary show of affection and support. And of course, if you haven’t already given, it’s never to late to help buy Darcy a little extra time.

Via Think Progress:

In a 1998 interview, Osama bin Laden — the terrorist organizer of 9/11 who still roams free — listed as one of his many grievances against the U.S. that Americans “have stolen $36 trillion from Muslims” by purchasing oil from Persian Gulf countries at low prices. The real price of a barrel of oil should be $144, bin Laden demanded.

Ten years ago today, the price of a barrel of oil was just $11. Heading into this holiday weekend, the price of a barrel of oil rested at $144 — a thirteen-fold increase.

One month after 9/11, the New York Times wrote of possible “nightmare” scenarios that would deliver bin Laden’s goal. Neela Banerjee warned that among the “misguided decisions” that would put oil supplies at risk would be “that the United States attacks Iraq.”

I’m guessing Osama is sending a big bouquet of flowers to George W. Bush, without whom none of this would be possible.

Yesterday started out with a modest goal. About $5,000 a day is what Darcy Burner needs to raise through the month of July just to keep pace with Dave Reichert, so every $5,000 chunk we raised for her would be one day more that she could devote to herself and her family after the devastating loss of their home and all their possessions in Monday’s fire. I didn’t know how many $5,000 chunks we could raise, but I was confident we could help lift at least a few days of fundraising off Darcy’s shoulders.

Well, thanks largely to the overwhelming support of the national netroots we’ve already raised over $85,000 in just 24 hours… that’s roughly equivalent to 17 days of fundraising this time of the year. Wow. And Markos is determined to raise $150,000 in online contributions, Darcy’s entire target for the month of July.

This is more than just money, it is a gift of time and an outpouring of affection that has buoyed Darcy’s spirits just as the full impact of her loss finally started to sink in. The campaign tells me she has canceled her schedule at least through the end of the week and will reevaluate day by day after that.

So if you haven’t already, please give to Darcy so that she and her family have the time to heal, without giving up an inch in her race against Reichert.

Give Darcy some time:

So, the Sonics will pay the city $45 million to break the final two years of their Key Arena lease (up from the $26.5 million offer the city rejected in February), and move to Oklahoma City for the 2008-2009 season, leaving their name and team history behind like a ghostly echo. Ah well.

Sure, the move was inevitable from the day Clay Bennett bought the team, and I suppose the mayor and his minions should be congratulated for squeezing an extra $18.5 million out of the lying bastard. But rather than settle (and it does feel like settling in more than one sense of the word), I would have preferred watching the team’s owners bled dry over the final two years of the lease, the arena as empty as Bennett’s promise of good faith negotiations.

Nothing wrong with a little spite now and then.

UPDATE:
The Seattle Times editorial board chimes in:

Seattle sports fans can only feel despair as the high-tech shining city of the future loses its 40-year basketball franchise and a ton of civic pride to a group of dishonest brokers from Oklahoma City.

The team is leaving town. That is all anyone will remember.

Huh. Actually, that’s not all anyone will remember. Some of us will remember that the Times ed board itself was unintentionally complicit in Bennett’s deception, vouching for his integrity at the same time he was brokering so dishonestly.

There have been whispers and shouts that SuperSonics owner Clay Bennett is only buying time until he can move the teams to his home state of Oklahoma. This is an unfair claim. Bennett has done nothing to suggest that moving the teams is a foregone conclusion.

If the Times had devoted only half the cynicism toward Bennett that they showed toward Darcy Burner, perhaps they might have helped foster a consensus in which elected officials and civic leaders could have pursued a more pragmatic approach toward defending our team from poachers. Or perhaps not. Either way, the Team Blethen blew it.

UPDATE, UPDATE:
A more terse goodbye to the Sonics.

In attempting to brush aside the controversy over the campaign’s inappropriate and privacy invading abuse of the Everett AquaSox mailing list, Dino Rossi campaign spokesperson Jill Strait scapegoated Snohomish County Finance Chair Tom Hoban, telling reporters:

Dino Rossi was unaware that the list had been requested or used.

For his part, Hoban went on to ridiculously tell the Everett Herald that…

“It is not a partisan event. It is a fund raiser for Dino but it is not targeting any one particular group.”

Uh-huh. Well it turns out that Rossi’s feint of deniability is just as preposterous as Hoban’s claim of nonpartisanship, given the fact that Rossi was in attendance at a December “campaign kickoff” event in which Hoban bragged about their “design” to use their investment in the AquaSox to “help out if [Rossi] decided to run for office.”

[audio:https://horsesass.org/wp-content/uploads/dinoaquasox.mp3]

That’s right, Hoban, the self-proclaimed “ask man” explains:

“This is by design that a 2,500-seat venue, and Dino Rossi in it, might help out if he decided to run for office.”

And Rossi really wants to claim that he was “unaware” of plans to use the AquaSox and their mailing list for partisan political purposes? Really?

Can’t wait to see the Kate Riley rant attacking the Dems for raising questions about that.

This morning HA joined with dozens of other blogs nationwide in an impromptu fundraiser to help give Darcy Burner the time she needs to tend to herself and her family in the aftermath of yesterday’s devastating house fire, and without having to worry about the demands of the campaign. $5,000 a day… that’s about how much money Darcy needs to raise to keep pace with Reichert at this point in the campaign… and each $5,000 chunk we raise online is one less day that she has to spend fundraising during the month of July.

Well, by 3PM this afternoon we’d already raised over $50,000 $60,000 $75,000… the equivalent of a ten twelve fifteen day breather for Darcy and her family. Amazing! And Markos at Daily Kos has now set an ambitious goal of raising her entire $150,000 July target:

We can’t help with the “campaign” side of things, but we can help with the money side of things. Darcy would have to raise about $150,000 in the month of July to keep up with her Republican opponent. Us bloggers are going to try and raise that for her.

Your generous donation is more than just an investment in WA-08 and the US House, it is a precious gift of time… time that Darcy and her family need to put their lives back together. So please join us in giving today.

Give Darcy some time:

In the comment threads, HA reader Phil K posts the contents of two emails he received as a fan and online ticket purchaser of the Everett AquaSox. The first is an invitation to a $100 per person “special fundraiser” for Republican Grand Old Party Party candidate for governor, Dino Rossi. The second is a red-faced email from AquaSox majority owners Peter A. and Peter E. Carfagna, apologizing for violating their fans personal privacy:

We recently learned that our personal privacy policy was compromised in an attempt to solicit your support for a partisan political fundraiser.

In that regard, on behalf of our family ownership group, we would like to express our sincere apologies.

Although we did not authorize this communication nor were we aware of it in advance, we have justifiably received numerous complaints from you expressing your displeasure. We take full responsibility and again beg your pardon.

How did this violation happen? Postman reports that “Dino Rossi’s campaign misused the mailing list of the minor league baseball team.” And how did Rossi’s campaign get ahold of the list? Well, Dino Rossi is a minority owner.

Rossi campaign spokeswoman Jill Strait blames the whole affair on Rossi’s Snohomish County Finance Chair, Tom Hoban, who’s also a minority owner, and claims that Rossi “was unaware that the list had been requested or used” (you know, for an event he’s scheduled to appear at in less than a week), telegraphing the kind of buck stops elsewhere management style we might expect from a Rossi administration.

For their part, the Carfagnas appear sincerely contrite, promising to take immediate steps to ensure an incident like this never happens again.

We take your personal privacy seriously. We will remain vigilant in protecting your email address from solicitors and vendors…

… and Republicans.

Hmm… I’m guessing the Seattle Times is going to want to editorialize on this latest campaign scandal… not!

Darcy Burner issued the following statement on the fire that destroyed her Ames Lake home:

“As many of you may be aware, early this morning my home was destroyed by a fire. It appears to have been caused by a faulty lamp in my son’s room. Unfortunately, our home and all of the possessions in it are a total loss, but I am so grateful that my family and I escaped safely. We may have lost our home and our possessions, but for the most part they can be replaced, and I feel like a true tragedy was narrowly avoided today. Please rest assured that while we have been a bit shaken by what happened, Mike, Henry and I are all okay.

“Particularly, I am grateful to the wonderful men and women of the Redmond and Kirkland Fire Departments, and the investigators from the King County Fire Investigation Unit. Their rapid response and incredible professionalism brought the fire under control and kept it from spreading to our neighbors’ homes. And these brave first responders even miraculously rescued my son’s puppy, who we initially thought had perished in the flames. Sadly, our cat, Charlotte, did not survive the fire.

“I am also deeply grateful for the expressions of support from friends, supporters and others who have called to express their condolences and offer their generous and heartfelt assistance. I am so moved by all of the offers of a place to stay, or clothes to wear, or all of the other offers of help that have poured in throughout the day. While we are fine for now, your kind expressions of support and concern have helped to sustain me through what has been a long and difficult day.

“For those who would like to do something to express their support, let me suggest making a contribution to your local humane society or animal shelter in memory of Charlotte, or to the Washington State Council of Firefighters Benevolent Fund.

“Thank you all for being there for us in my family’s time of need.  It means so much to us.”

I’ve added in the links, but feel free to choose your own charities that fit the spirit of the request.