Goldy

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IurlK7bpn1w[/youtube]

Before the Seattle Times endorsed Republican Steve Litzow for his alleged ability “to reach across the political aisle in an increasingly partisan atmosphere in Olympia,” they might have wanted to take a closer look at how well Litzow did interacting with the person sitting right next to him on the putatively nonpartisan Mercer Island City Council. And in strident opposition to improving safety at a dangerous crosswalk, no less.

As the ad above says, it’s hard to reach across party lines when you’re yelling.

I actually drive by the intersection of Merrimount Dr. and Island Crest Way several times a week, as does Litzow, I presume, as our children attend the same middle school, and Island Crest is the main thoroughfare to and from. And from what I’ve seen, I sure has hell wouldn’t want to be a pedestrian in that crosswalk, so it’s hard to understand why Litzow would so angrily oppose the proposed improvement.

And yet he not only voted against the proposal, after it passed without his support he cut a deal with other politicians to pull the project’s funding.

19 days later, another child was hit by a car in the intersection.

So if that’s your idea of “fiscal conservatism,” I guess you should vote for Litzow. Otherwise, I strongly urge 41st LD voters to reelect State Sen. Randy Gordon.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rR1edS78s9U[/youtube]

This is exactly the sorta ad I wish Darcy Burner had been able to run during the final weeks of the 2006 and 2008 campaigns. But she couldn’t.

Why? More on Slog.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8VMcRqtdSI&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

For years I’ve been suggesting that the way to win an income tax in Washington state was to borrow a page from Tim Eyman, and run against Olympia. You know, a message something along the lines of: “We don’t have an income tax, because they won’t give us an income tax…” emphasizing how the fat cats benefit from the current tax structure, while our legislators kowtow to their wealthy benefactors’ wishes.

So it’s good to see that message finally being tested, if timidly.

Vote No on I-1100… that’s what urge the readers at Slog while joyfully spanking my colleagues at the Stranger for daring to urge otherwise.

See, not all alcoholics are as harmless and lovable as the car-less barflies at theStranger, whose most abusive booze-fueled behavior is mostly targeted at the English language. Alcohol is the most widely abused drug available. It is the most devastating to families, and the most costly to businesses and government. And it is also by far the most deadly.

Anyway, it’s fun and it’s pointed. So read the whole thing.

Last month I wrote about Attorney General Rob McKenna’s cynical effort to reinterpret Washington’s voter-approved minimum wage statute, so as to avoid an increase this year. And as predicted, this week L&I announced that it would ignore McKenna’s opinion, by raising the minimum wage another 12 cents an hour.

Labor & Industries spokeswoman Kim Contris said the state ultimately made the decision to raise the rate “based on how we believe a court would interpret the law.”

“We really wanted to correctly implement the law,” she said. “We recognize there could be confusion and additional cost if we made a mistake and the court overturned the decision.”

That’s right, the state ignored its own attorney’s opinion because they were concerned about the legal cost of following it. Huh. Perhaps the state should fire its attorney?

No doubt there are policy arguments to make in favor of keeping the minimum wage flat during a time of slow job growth and high unemployment — for example, the stupid, arrogant and profoundly anti-worker arguments made by the Columbian — but the problem for McKenna is that the legal arguments just weren’t there. The law is clear: L&I is instructed to adjust the minimum wage “by increasing the current year’s minimum wage rate by the rate of inflation,” and since inflation went up this year, however slightly, so will the minimum wage.

To ignore the plain meaning of the word “by” in the service of fabulating alternative formulas may be creative lawyering, but as L&I rightly determined, it wasn’t likely to hold up in court. Which in the end, not only calls into question McKenna’s abilities as an attorney, but as a politician as well.

I guess I was too busy paying attention to real stuff today to notice that Rasmussen dumped a new poll in Washington’s U.S. Senate race:  Sen. Patty Murray 49%, Dino Rossi 46%.

That’s the exact same margin by which Rasmussen had Rossi leading less than two weeks ago.

Whatever that means.

Update (Darryl): I take a closer look at the poll here.

2006 was a bad year for Camas Washington, with over 300 workers losing their jobs at the local Georgia-Pacific mill, shortly after the company was acquired by Koch Industries. But while the region is still suffering from the “Koch-izing” of Georgia-Pacific, at least one Camas resident owes the far-right-wing Koch brothers a huge debt of gratitude, if not something more specific: Republican congressional hopeful Jaime Herrera.

The latest campaign finance reports are in, and it turns out the Kochs are spending big to buy Herrera a job in the other Washington, contributing $5,000 directly to her campaign, and spending at least another $282,000 through their “Americans for Prosperity” front group, attacking her Democratic opponent, Denny Heck. It is the ultimate insult to WA-03 voters; first the New York-based Kochs make millions closing local mills and outsourcing jobs, and now they’re spending a portion of their profits to purchase themselves another congresswoman.

You know… the free market at work.

So are WA-03 voters going to let a couple of New York City billionaires buy their congressional seat? Do they really believe that Herrera won’t be beholden to the Koch’s anti-Social-Security/anti-regulatory/pro-outsourcing agenda? Only if the local media continues to fail to inform voters about what Herrera and her backers really stand for.

Annoying as they can be, I sometimes find my spam mail amusing, mostly due to their attempts to personalize them, based on my domain name. And, well, this one just made me chuckle.

So, only a week after the Seattle Times lauds Democratic challenger Suzan DelBene for her nuanced and knowledgeable stance on reviving the Depression-era Glass-Steagall Act — a subject that came up at their joint editorial board interview — you’d think Republican incumbent Rep. Dave Reichert would at least be able to bullshit an answer on the issue.

Um… nope. In fact, at a candidate forum in Newcastle this weekend, Reichert said he doesn’t even know what Glass-Steagall is.

I don’t know what’s more insulting, the suggestion that Reichert is brain-damaged, or the insistance that he’s not.

More snark at Slog.

Numbers 15:32-36
While the Israelites were in the desert, a man was found gathering wood on the Sabbath day. Those who found him gathering wood brought him to Moses and Aaron and the whole assembly, and they kept him in custody, because it was not clear what should be done to him. Then the LORD said to Moses, “The man must die. The whole assembly must stone him outside the camp.” So the assembly took him outside the camp and stoned him to death, as the LORD commanded Moses.

Discuss.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q9SbDnoaYX8&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]

Click on over to Republican challenger John Koster’s website, and you’ll learn some interesting things about Democratic incumbent Rep. Rick Larsen’s “legacy.” Like, the fact that, apparently, he’s black.

Who knew?

Notice how the Grand Photoshop Wizards at the Koster campaign have attempted to color in Larsen’s and Pelosi’s complexion to match that of President Obama? Nope… no subliminal message there. And you won’t find one on Koster’s recent mailer either, which features the exact same picture on the front, while displaying a lilly white Koster and supporters on the back.

No doubt the Koster campaign will deny any mischief, but let’s just say you can color me skeptical.

I did a lot of online fundraising for Darcy Burner over the last two cycles, and as proud and amazed as I was over the hundreds of thousands of dollars I helped raise for her, I was consistently disappointed by my failure to help her in my main capacity as a blogger: moving and shaping headlines.

Yeah, sure, the local blogosphere was instrumental in creating buzz around Darcy’s campaign in the spring of 2006, when nobody else was taking the 8th CD race seriously, but when push came to shove, I was never able to have the kinda impact I’ve had in countless other races. If anything, my fundraising efforts on her behalf were counterproductive in terms of my ability to influence media coverage. I don’t want to sound too narcissistic, but I couldn’t help but wonder if the Seattle Times’ over-the-top animosity toward Darcy might not have been at least partially directed at her enthusiastic supporters in the Netroots.

And so for that and other reasons, I’ve backed away a bit from activism over the past couple years, and focused more on the journalism side of what I do, pretty much abstaining from doing any candidate fundraising at all. Until now.

Seattle’s own Joan McCarter just announced on Daily Kos that Suzan DelBene has been added to their Orange to Blue ActBlue page… a testament to just how close the WA-08 race once again is. Of course, it’s also a testament to DelBene’s qualifications for office, and Reichert’s lack thereof, but she wouldn’t have been added at this late stage if there wasn’t reason to believe that the race is winnable.

I know the rest of the local media don’t believe it — they won’t believe it, because it fucks up their narrative of Democrats in crisis — but WA-08 has suddenly become one of the Democrats’ best shots at knocking off a Republican incumbent in an otherwise Republican-leaning year. Which would make a DelBene victory all the more sweet.

So please, give what you can, and help put WA-08 back in the hands of a competent representative.

No, Democrats are not in trouble in Delaware. Of course not. Democratic Senate nominee Chris Coons is going to wipe the floor with crazy teabagger Christine O’Donnell, and the Dems will pick up the state’s lone House seat as well.

And yet, both President Obama and Vice President Biden are making a high profile campaign stop in the Diamond State.

Huh. Guess that doesn’t fit in all that well with the Republican meme that Obama’s upcoming rally in Seattle is as sign that Democrats here are desperate.