Goldy

When I was twelve years old I picked up a dog-eared copy of “God Bless You Mr. Rosewater,” and for the next ten years or so I read and reread everything Kurt Vonnegut wrote. Vonnegut was my first novelist, and as such, I suppose he couldn’t help but have an influence on making me who I am today.

Kurt Vonnegut died today. He was 84.

Fuck Don Imus. But you know what…? Fuck civility. And fuck the Seattle Times.

Really… who the fuck do they think they are pontificating about who should or should not have access to the public airwaves? [“Airwaves no place for Imus and his ilk“] And who the fuck can possibly take seriously this colorless, bland, bourgeois cabal of towheaded ho’s anointing themselves arbiters of “diversity and decency”?

I mean… what the fuck is up with that?

Does Imus come off as a racist, misogynistic, insensitive, mean-spirited prick? Hell yeah… that’s his whole schtick! That’s his stock in trade! What part of “shock jock” doesn’t the Times understand?

No doubt Imus should be raked over the public coals for his awful comments, and he deserves whatever punishment the marketplace delivers. But calling on the FCC to pull WFAN’s license? That’s censorship, pure and simple. That’s state control of the media. That’s fascism. And the Times — a newspaper for chrissakes, that owes its very existence to the unfettered rights enunciated in the First Amendment — should be just as ashamed of its offensive statement as Imus should be of his.

What’s next? Who else should be yanked from the airwaves and denied their livelihood because they offend the Times’ oh-so-sensitive sensibilities? If radio hosts should be held to standards exceeding FCC regulations, how far should the purge go? How careful must we tread? Should KIRO, as some angry letter writers have demanded, dump my show because I (gasp) repeatedly use the word “fuck” on my personal blog? Well fuckity-fuck, fuck, fuck to that!

And don’t give me any of that holier-than-thou bullshit about radio stations having a legal obligation to “serve the community.” That lie gave up the ghost back during the Reagan administration with the death of the Fairness Doctrine and the birth of an anti-regulatory crusade that inevitably led to the relentlessly homogenizing, profit-driven, media consolidation we have seen ever since. Today, the vast majority of commercial radio stations fulfill the totality of their community service with a handful of PSAs and a weekly test of the Emergency Alert System.

At least WFAN airs local content, as opposed to the hundreds of radio stations in small markets nationwide, whose absentee, monopolist owners would continue to obliviously broadcast their automated, computer-controlled, top-McForty programming, uninterrupted, while a chlorine gas-leak slowly smothered their uninformed local audience in agonizing death. If that’s what they mean by community service, then the Times editorial board has its swollen head stuck so far up its tight little ass it makes the Enumclaw horse incident look like a prostate exam.

What kind of goddamn fantasy world is the Times living in? For decades now, right-wing talk radio hosts have villified liberals like me, questioning our patriotism, smearing us as traitors, cowards and terrorists, and accusing us of treason… a crime they repeatedly make clear is punishable by death. Ann Coulter publicly “jokes” about executing a few liberals to keep us in line, calls for Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens to be poisoned, and laments that Timothy McVeigh didn’t blow up the New York Times building instead… but I don’t hear the Times complaining about her frequent appearances on FOX News. And G. Gordon Liddy once infamously instructed his audience how to deal with ATF agents: “Head shots, head shots…. Kill the sons of bitches!” Hmm. No FCC licenses revoked; no fines issued. Is that what the Times means by serving the community?

And what the fuck is “decency” anyway? Polite language? Polite lies? Does anybody but a fourth or fifth generation Blethen really want the standards of civic discourse to be defined by literary somnambulists who can’t discern the difference between seriousness and solemnity, and who wouldn’t recognize nuance if it jumped right out in front of them and shot their dog?

I’ve got news for the Times: there’s a reason why assholes like Imus and Howard Stern have millions of fans, while former newspaper subscribers flee to the blogs in droves, no matter how foulmouthed, uncivil or indecent some of us might be. It is because anything is better than the stultifying, turgidly-written, equivocating prose that often passes for journalism these days, and the arrogant, moralistic grammarians who apparently revel in using as little of the English language as possible. The Times’ market keeps growing, and yet its circulation keeps shrinking — and they have the nerve to lecture others on how best to serve the community? Give me a fucking break!

Criticize to your heart’s content. Excoriate the trash-talkers and hate-mongers for their hurtful and violent words — even do so selectively if that is what your conscience allows. But when you call for using the power of the state to silence others, you abdicate any and all of the moral authority you believe your printing presses confer upon you.

If that’s civility… if that’s decency… then I want nothing the fuck to do with it.

The Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight (and every Tuesday), 8PM at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.

Come joins us for some hopped up conversation and hoppy beer.

Not in Seattle? Liberals will also be drinking tonight in the Tri-Cities and Vancouver. A full listing of Washington’s eleven Drinking Liberally chapters is available here.

I’ve made a habit of abusing the state’s media recently for constantly repeating the Sonics’ misleading number that they are only seeking $300 million in taxpayer subsidies… when in fact they are really seeking $400 million (not to mention another hundred million or so in road improvements):

The Times continues to repeat that $300 million figure when in fact the Sonics’ plan calls for $400 million in taxpayer subsidies: $300 million from the sales tax, and $100 million from Renton. I’m not sure what the correct answer would be on the math WASL, but the last time I checked, 300 plus 100 still equals 400. (Wait… let me check my calculator. Yeah. 400.)

Well, it looks like the Times finally took my criticism to heart and whipped out their calculators, for in today’s edition we finally see the number change:

The Sonics still are not sure if state lawmakers will support a bill that would provide $200 million toward the new arena.

Oops. You were supposed to add $100 million onto the public cost, not subtract.

Unless… maybe the Times knows something about the Sonics’ rumored new financing plan they weren’t supposed to tell us?

On March 20, HA readers learned that acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan once called undocumented immigrants “wetbacks,” and that he was admonished from the bench for blowing a murder-consipiracy case by withholding evidence from the defense.

On April 10, Seattle Times readers learned that acting U.S. Attorney Jeff Sullivan once called undocumented immigrants “wetbacks,” and that he was admonished from the bench for blowing a murder-consipiracy case by withholding evidence from the defense.

Sure, the Times piece was more thorough and evenhanded than mine (though to be fair to me, I did link to all my source material,) but still… three weeks?

I’m just sayin’.

The Food and Drug Administration doesn’t keep epidemiological data on dog and cat illnesses and deaths… but the nationwide veterinary chain Banfield does. And according to an extrapolation of data from its 615 veterinary hospitals Banfield estimates that as many as 39,000 cats and dogs may have been sickened or killed by contaminated pet food.

The hospital chain saw 1 million dogs and cats during the three months when the more than 100 brands of now-recalled contaminated pet food were sold. It saw 284 extra cases of kidney failure among cats during that period, or a roughly 30 percent increase, when compared with background rates.

“It has meaning, when you see a peak like that. We see so many pets here, and it coincided with the recall period,” said veterinarian Hugh Lewis, who oversees the mining of Banfield’s database to do clinical studies.

There are an estimated 60 million dogs and 70 million cats nationwide.

In other news, one person has died and more than three hundred have fallen ill in two separate incidents in China, after eating porridge suspected of containing rat poison. According to Wikipedia:

[…] canned and jarred gluten is commonly eaten as an accompaniment to congee (boiled rice porridge) as part of a traditional Chinese breakfast.

Hmm.

Billionaire Microsoft Word developer Charles Simonyi’s civilian space trip nearly ended in tragedy yesterday when his Soyuz TMA-10 spacecraft unexpectedly crashed with an “Internal Error” shortly after takeoff.

Accustomed to frequent backups, Simonyi successfully relaunched from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan after a clean reboot. The fifth civilian to rocket into space, Simonyi, 58, is expected to link up with the International Space Station sometime Monday night.

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on Newsradio 710-KIRO:

7PM: What’s really happening in Iraq?
Sen. John McCain insists progress is being made and the war is winnable… but reports from the ground are much more grim. Dal LaMagna of ProgressiveGovernment.org has made frequent trips to the region in his efforts to create a peaceful dialog between Iraqis and Americans, and he joins me for the hour to give us the latest update from Iraq.

8PM: TBA

9PM: Help Wanted!
You’d think a job with a big office and a six-figure a year salary would attract a lot of applicants… so Geov Parrish wants to know why there are so few people running for Seattle City Council. Or the Port Commission and School Board for that matter. Geov joins me at the top of the hour to talk about the state of local politics and the dearth of candidates progressive or otherwise.

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Karl Rove spoke at American University last night, and while I’m sure the invited guests were enthralled, he didn’t exactly get a rousing reception from the masses.

Cliff Schecter, an American University alum, describes the events:

Rove, in usual elitist/slimy GOP fashion, only spoke to what Nietzsche might call the “splendid blond beasts” who make up the Young Republican idiot core. You know who these losers are, the people on your campus who split most of their time between defending date rape, working to get professors fired for not praising Pinochet and watching German shiza videos.

Well, Rove got a rude reception at American, in the form of students protesting him and trying to block his car as he left–calling for his arrest for violating the Presidential Records Act. As someone who has recently called for Rove to go to prison myself, I sympathize.

Hmm. Rove will be in town, celebrating Abraham Lincoln’s assassination with the King County Republicans this Saturday, April 14. Perhaps we should organize him a big Seattle welcome, WTO style?

Tonight on “The David Goldstein Show”, 7PM to 10PM on Newsradio 710-KIRO:

7PM: Is President Bush unfit to lead?
That’s what columnist Joe Klein says in this week’s Time Magazine, in which he outline’s the Bush administration’s “epic collapse.” Do you agree with Klein that “arrogance (the surge), incompetence (Walter Reed) and cynicism (the U.S. Attorneys)” makes this administration “one of the worst in American history”…? I sure do.

8PM: Immigration

9PM: TBA

Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

I disagree with today’s Seattle Times editorial on voter registration, and that’s okay — they’re entitled to their own opinion. But the headline they used, well, it’s fucking irresponsible: “Less tampering with state elections.”

I suppose, perhaps, they meant to advocate less tampering with state election laws, which seems to be the relatively even-tempered thesis of the editorial, but if they did, they could have just said so. No, instead they chose to leave a provocative, misleading headline dangling out there, that — even outside of the context of our 2004 gubernatorial election controversy — clearly implies that our state elections are being tampered with.

That’s tabloid journalism. Which again, I guess would be okay… if Frank Blethen were man enough to own up to the journalistic ethos that guides his op/ed pages.

Apart from its childish potshot at the bill’s sponsor, state Sen. Eric Oemig (who is ironically presented as a figure of ridicule in a piece that stoops to quoting Sen. Pam “Who took my roses?” Roach as the voice of reason,) there is little opportunity for fisking in the body of the editorial itself. As far as I can tell, the facts don’t seem particularly distorted, and the unnamed author makes an effort to present both sides of the argument. But the headline… oy… the headline.

The headline belies the true history of election tampering in America, which despite the popularized image of ballot-box-stuffing and fraud, has predominantly relied on voter suppression. There is no need to tamper with the results of an election if you can succeed in preventing your opponents’ supporters from voting, and so poll taxes, poll tests, felon disenfranchisement, unequal access to voting facilities, voter roll purges, dirty tricks and outright intimidation have long been the primary means of manipulating the results.

The purpose of Election Day registration is to make it easier for eligible citizens to vote, thus increasing voter turnout and decreasing the opportunity for voter suppression. Hell… what’s the use of a voter roll purge if an eligible voter can just re-register on Election Day? As for accurately verifying these last minute registrants, even the Times admits that “it could be done.” They just don’t think it’s worth the time and money.

Registering to vote already is easy, and vote-by-mail has made voting easier. It is not so bad to require a little effort on the part of the citizen.

“We’re talking about adults here,” says Sen. Pam Roach, R-Auburn. “At some point, the people have to take a responsibility.”

I guess when one’s political agenda is shared by only a small fraction of the electorate, universal suffrage must lose its universal appeal.

Tonight’s my last night filling in for Frank Shiers, 9PM to 1AM on Newsradio 710-KIRO.

9PM: How many times do we have to say No to a new Sonics arena?
An editorial in today’s Seattle Times urges state legislators to authorize taxes to pay for a new $500 million Sonics arena, to which I responded… what part of 74-percent don’t you understand? Chris Van Dyk of Citzens for More Important Things joins me help answer that question, and discuss the current political fortunes of taxpayer subsidized professional sports in WA state.

10PM: Am I trying to destroy America’s standard of living?
Okay, maybe today wasn’t really Seattle’s hottest April 6 on record. (It was.) And maybe an international conference on climate change didn’t just come out today with it’s bleakest forecast ever. (It did.) So then, why is it that people like me keep insisting that global warming is real, and that it is at least partially caused by human activity?

11PM: Is he nuts?
Gen. JC Christian of the far-right-wing extremist blog Jesus’ General, joins me for the hour to give us his peculiar insight into the hearts, minds and loins of the religious right and the Republican Party they call home. And I mean peculiar. Is he crazy? Is this some sort of joke? Tune in tonight and decide for yourself.

12AM: Is Washington a high tax state?
The latest figures from the conservative Tax Foundation just came out, and it turns out, um… no. According to the report, state and local taxes average 11 percent of the nation’s income, while WA’s taxes average 11.1 percent, landing it smack dab in the middle of the pack. And that’s after a big jump due to a voter approved, 9-cent increase in our gasoline excise tax. Meanwhile, gasoline prices are projected to hit over $4.00/gallon this summer, and we’re hearing nary a peep of concern out anti-tax Republicans. Hmm.

Plus the good old fashioned Ann Coulter bashing I failed to deliver last night, and more fascinating conversation! Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Yesterday, after the nationwide pet food recall expanded to include dog biscuits produced by Sunshine Mills under several brands, the FDA assured reporters that it believed the recall was complete.

The FDA knows of no other pet product companies planning recalls, agency officials told reporters.

“Other than that, I think, you know, the public should feel secure in purchasing pet foods that are not subject to the recall,” Stephen Sundlof, director of the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine, told reporters.

Whoops.

Itchmo’s got the latest, including the news that Xuzhou Anying exports 10,000 metric tons of wheat gluten a year. 972 tracked down, only 9,028 left to go. Meanwhile, Pet Connection readers now report 3,242 dogs and cats suspected of dying due to contaminated food.

The Seattle Times, purveyors of the most widely read sports section in the state, selflessly urges the state Legislature to approve a new $500 million Sonics arena: “Don’t bench Sonics: take it to a vote.”

The Legislature has waited long enough. It is time lawmakers passed a bill out of Olympia that allows King County to work on new digs in Renton for the Seattle SuperSonics and Storm.

To which I respectfully ask the Times’ editorial board… what part of 74-percent don’t you understand?!

The Times laughably attempts to champion “local control,” arguing that this is a local decision that should be settled by a council vote or a countywide ballot measure.

But… um… do these editors actually live in Seattle? Do they read their own paper? Hell, do they even bother to read their own editorials?

The voters have spoken, or maybe, shouted, on the use of city funds in Seattle sports arenas.

The 74 percent “yes” vote on Initiative 91 means there will be no renovation of KeyArena at Seattle Center for basketball. […] Seattle voters are in no mood to finance a Sonics arena or any other improvements. If Seattle voters are this grouchy, voters in suburban King County probably don’t feel that much different.

Just this past November, no less an authority than the Times editorial board itself put its finger on the pulse of the region’s voters, and declared a new Sonics arena dead. No, Seattleites aren’t the only fish in the Sound, but nothing passes countywide with three-quarters of Seattle voters going against it.

But more than just being unrealistic, it is downright insulting for the Seattle Bothell Times and its Mercer Island based editors to now ask for a countywide vote to approve a tax on Seattle voters to pay for an arena that we have already so overwhelmingly rejected. Hell… why not make it a statewide vote? That way, the Times gets to hawk sports headlines during those dreary months between football and baseball, while the rest of the state gets the opportunity to once again screw Seattle. Everybody’s happy.

This isn’t about local control. It’s about leaving the door open to the possibility of some back-room deal, where enough council members might be arm-twisted into approving the taxes without putting them up for a public vote. This is about finding a way to ignore the will of the voters, not honor it.

And in doing so, the Times editorial board is once again playing loose with the facts, and being intentionally naive with their analysis.

The legislation was crafted so King County, not the state, would use existing taxes to pay for $300 million of the projected $500 million arena in Renton, the site preferred by team owners.

Actually, “the site preferred by team owners” is in Oklahoma City, but we’ll get to that in a moment, for first I have to point out how much it annoys the shit out of me that the Times continues to repeat that $300 million figure when in fact the Sonics’ plan calls for $400 million in taxpayer subsidies: $300 million from the sales tax, and $100 million from Renton. I’m not sure what the correct answer would be on the math WASL, but the last time I checked, 300 plus 100 still equals 400. (Wait… let me check my calculator. Yeah. 400.)

Whenever the Times repeats the “$300 million of the projected $500 million” canard it suggests that the Sonics are picking up the $200 million difference, and that just isn’t true. They expect an additional $100 million to be picked up by Renton taxpayers, and of the remaining $100 million, I’m not really sure that it will cost the Sonics owners a single dime out-of-pocket. Between naming rights, seat licenses and advance leases on luxury boxes, the Sonics portion is pretty much paid for. And don’t forget, the Sonics refuse to be responsible for the inevitable cost overruns — this will fall on the backs of local taxpayers.

Money for the arena would come from taxes, such as a restaurant tax and rental-car tax, already being used to pay for Safeco and Qwest fields, and the often-used sales-tax credit.

The implication being that we don’t actually pay these taxes — people who eat in restaurants, stay at hotels, or rent cars do. You know… other people. Oh… and that “often-used sales-tax credit” the Times attempts to slip by without explanation… that’s hundreds of millions of dollars that would otherwise go into state coffers to pay for schools, prisons, health care and other frivolous stuff like that. No biggie.

The bill would also bolster two other cultural amenities: the arts and the Mariners. Money raised by the taxes would be used for the upkeep and repairs of Safeco Field and funneled into an account for the arts.

Holy shit! Didn’t we just build Safeco Field? Aren’t we still paying the taxes to pay off the bonds on that voter-rejected public extortion? And we already need more taxes to pay for repairs? And that’s supposed to be a solid argument in favor of another such public boondoggle?

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.

“Nothing to suggest” that Bennett is being insincere? Um… how about seeking $400 million in taxpayer subsidies on a $500 million hoops palace, just weeks after 74-percent of voters rejected $200 million in subsidies on a $220 million Key Arena renovation? If that’s sincere, it’s sincerely stupid.

The Times insists that “the SuperSonics deserve a chance to work something out with King County,” and on that they’re absolutely right. But to do so, the Sonics and their allies at the Times will first have to take an honest measure of the public mood instead of attempting to misrepresent it. Local control means working out the details of a proposal with local officials first, and then going to the Legislature to ask for the taxing authority, if necessary. Local control means taking into account the will of local voters. If the Sonics choose to negotiate honestly and sincerely — and within the confines of political reality — there is a deal that can be struck that could garner sufficient popular support… maybe a $100 million team contribution to a $220 million Key Arena renovation, a deal that would be more in line with the kind of public-private partnerships struck elsewhere. It doesn’t necessarily have to make financial sense. It just has to make sense.

If the Sonics owners are serious about keeping the team in the region there is no rush for the Legislature to act. All of the Sonics deadlines are self-imposed, and they can always be extended. So come on Clay, prove me wrong and the Times right. Come back to the table and negotiate a realistic deal, in good faith, that actually has a snowball’s chance of being approved by voters.

And oh yeah… here’s a free PR tip: it probably wouldn’t hurt your negotiating position if you didn’t put such a shitty product on the court.

I’m filling in again for Frank Shiers this week, Weds thru Fri, 9PM to 1AM on Newsradio 710-KIRO.

9PM: Should ex-felons have the right to vote?
Florida of all places just enacted legislation that quickly restores voting and other civil rights to convicted felons after they’ve finished serving their sentence, but a similar bill in the Democratic-controlled Washington Legislature (SB 5530) remains stuck in committee. But no less an authority than the American Correctional Association says that our current felon disenfranchisement laws “serve no correctional purpose – and may actually contribute to recidivism.” Jennifer Shaw from the ACLU of Washington joins me for the hour.

10PM: Do you remember Seattle?
Local writer Clark Humphrey joins me for the hour to talk about his book Vanishing Seattle, which explores a city where timber and fish were more lucrative than airplanes and computers, a place of kitschy architecture and homespun humor, a place bounding with hope for a brighter future (as seen at the 1962 World’s Fair). What do you miss (or not miss) from your vanishing Seattle? Call in and give me, a relative newcomer, a well needed history lesson.

Plus an update on the expanded pet food recall, some good old fashioned Ann Coulter bashing, and more fascinating conversation! Tune in tonight (or listen to the live stream) and give me a call: 1-877-710-KIRO (5476).

Coming up: My favorite Republican, Gen. JC Christian of the blog Jesus’ General joins me Friday at 11PM to give us his peculiar insight into the minds of the extreme far-right.