There are still more questions than answers about what happened at the Boston Marathon earlier today. I’ve been gathering some links for tomorrow’s open thread, but I couldn’t let this pass without note:

“An insane rebellion against our Creator God is the root cause of this murderous action,” writes [Mars Hill] Pastor David Fairchild in a post shortly after Monday’s explosions.

“We may blame this barbarism on religion, economics, politics, and even mental maladies. Though influential, the underlying sin behind every sin is treason against the One who made us for love and flourishing,” Fairchild writes.

No. No it isn’t. We don’t know if the people who did this are religious fanatics, or if they have some other motive. But no, Fairchild and any other person who wants to throw God’s intent into this needs to just not.

If God is part of the healing, for individuals or communities, great. But you don’t get to shoehorn God into this. Not now. Not ever.

– Happy Jackie Robinson Day.

– I’ve got a get a car.

– I don’t know what’s worse, the general dickishness of this picture, or that fact that people from Mercer Island and Auburn think they’re cowboys.

– It’s a little hard to unpack what he is doing here. First of all, he means fetuses. Second, it is impossible to arm fetuses (but if it was possible, @bridoc has a good point: “Fetuses have awful aim”). Third, the implication is that fetuses would shoot doctors performing abortions. Therefore the “Vote Pro-Life!” at the bottom of the bumper sticker seems perhaps out of place?

– Child sex trafficking – as easy in Seattle as ordering a pizza

– Bitcoin isn’t a currency. It’s a commodity.

This is a great and all. I’m totally supportive of it, and I hope to see it happen.

The US Bicycle Route System is a vision for a network of these routes, allowing for easier and safer bicycle travel to all reaches of the nation. The country already has some active segments in the Mid-West and East Coast.

Washington is working to develop USBR 10, working with towns, cities and parks across northern Washington. And, as the Bicycle Alliance of Washington’s John Pope reports, the collaboration has already resulted in some unexpected benefits.

It sounds like an amazing thing, and I’d certainly take it some way. But I can’t imagine going to Eastern Washington on a bike, but I’m not in the greatest shape of my life. Maybe it’s less daunting if you’re planning it. God bless anyone who would be willing and able to do it.

I would be more inclined to go South to Vancouver, then to Longview, and then up the East Sound. That sounds like a fun vacation if the vision for Washington is ever completed. I wonder how long that would take if the route is ever completed?

In the mayor’s race, the mainstream media and local bigwigs are assuming Mike McGinn is done. And I get it: he isn’t popular. He has had problems with police accountability. Dumbasses think paying market rates for parking and installing bike lanes are a war on cars.* Something something the tunnel. But given that they all told us Greg Nickels would have a cakewalk, I’m not so sure. And neither is UNITE HERE Local 8, as they’ve just endorsed him.

During his first term, Mayor McGinn played an instrumental role in passing Seattle’s groundbreaking paid sick days law. He also publicly supported Hyatt workers in their effort to organize for a better workplace free of employer intimidation, and championed the creation of good jobs for stadium workers with the return of the Seattle Supersonics.

“Mayor McGinn has proven to be an incredibly strong advocate for hospitality workers in Seattle,” said Erik Van Rossum, President of UNITE HERE Local 8. “From passing the nation’s third paid sick leave law to creating jobs and standing with workers, Mayor McGinn is the most progressive mayor in America.”

“Mayor McGinn has consistently supported good quality jobs and responsible economic growth,” continued Van Rossum. “Time and again when hotel housekeepers, cooks, dishwashers, servers and stadium concession workers need a strong voice at City Hall, Mayor McGinn is there.”

He still has a lot of work to do to get reelected, or for that matter to get out of the primary (by way of full disclosure: including to get my vote, although if the election were today, I’d vote for him). But certainly this is the right sort of endorsement to get. It reminds people why The Seattle Times and bidness people hate him, and it may be a dedicated force of door knockers and phone callers for a campaign that will be short of cash compared to some of the others.

[Read more…]

I’m not the biggest Reuven Carlyle fan. Still, I’m glad he goes after tax loopholes.

Carlyle, who’s been beating the tax breaks drum for years, went on to trash the whole exemptions process, saying it was time to apply “the same line by line rigor to both sides of the ledger” pointing out that while the legislature debates program spending every budget cycle, it looks the other way when it comes to tax breaks. “It’s a new era. We’re expecting and demanding a new level of rigor for tax breaks.”

Carlyle said that the legislature has created 277 new tax exemptions worth $3.6 billion since 1995 (he didn’t also note, though, that the Democrats have been in control for most of that time).* The grand total now, he said, is 640 tax exemptions worth “tens of billions.”

Carlyle said that some of them made sense, but concluded: “Here’s the deal: Let’s acknowledge as a state that in some cases the money from tax breaks would deliver better value, a better return on investment, by investing in kids and families, schools and universities.”

I suspect that I’d find more loopholes to close than Carlyle (or the median legislator in either house). But this is a good conversation to have.

[Read more…]

Sorry this is late

– Congrats to Sally Jewell

– I like Jim Wallis, but he’s quite late to the party on marriage equality, and then only half assedly there.

– For those who were interested in why Rear Admiral Charles Gaouette was out.

– Pregnancy Is Hard But Anti-Choicers Refuse to Admit It

– I don’t know if I’m more happy or sad about the cancellation of the Blue Angels, but I’m definitely both.

– The Direct Tui

I’m generally a rights of defendants person. And more generally a you can have your day in court person. But even with those filters, this seems like a dumb lawsuit (Links to the TNT, so use your clicks accordingly).

Paula Henry’s husband was fatally shot by a family friend in Tacoma in 1995, and now 18 years later her husband’s killer is suing her and others from prison.

Larry Shandola alleges that Henry violated his privacy rights and intentionally inflicted emotional distress, in part by telling the state Department of Corrections that he shouldn’t be allowed to serve his sentence in his birth country of Canada.

…

Now Shandola is seeking $100,000 each from Paula Henry and other defendants, according to court records. He had Henry served with the lawsuit at her home, which prompted her to move because she was terrified that he knew where she lived, Ladenburg said.

Some of Henry’s friends and a victim’s advocate are also named in the suit and have had to pay thousands to defend themselves, Ladenburg said.

A motion to dismiss the lawsuit will be heard Friday, he said. Henry is requesting $10,000 in statutory damages, according to court documents.

I mean unless there’s something I’m missing here this is, on top of being cruel, just dumb.

The linked article says that while it’s too late to do something about this sort of thing in the legislature unless it’s attached to another bill. I don’t know how that would pass muster with the 2 items requirement, but if they can do that, great.

The Queen Anne, Belltown, and Downtown business people are upset that Hempfest is going to exist and are couching it in complaints about the venue.

At the request of the BBA Board, BBA President Jim Miller joined with the Downtown Seattle Association and the Uptown Alliance in a letter to the City’s Office of Economic Development requesting that the City not issue a permit to Hempfest for use of Myrtle Edwards Park unless specific conditions are met.

The letter states that the size of Hempfest at 250,000 participants has outgrown the 4.8 acres of Myrtle Edwards as a safe and appropriate venue, that customer access to nearby waterfront businesses is closed off during the festival, and that noise, traffic, and trash are a direct impact to the surrounding residential neighborhoods.

We can’t have tourists coming to one of the most vibrant areas of the city? That would be a negative? It seems overblown to me, as someone who has never been to Hempfest.

And I suppose I have been negatively impacted: I once had to bike to Ballard using a different route! The bottom line is that the city functions just fine when Hempfest is going on. And the downtown location is a draw. People from out of state can find a hotel in walking distance, for example.

Also, one of their proposals — shortening the event to one day — seems counterproductive if the goal is to not crowd the park. I assume some people are only coming for one day. If the business groups got their way, instead of some of them going on Saturday and some on Sunday, they’d all come in on the same day.

– There will be fewer water shut offs as the Seattle City Council passes the No Child Without Water legislation

– Diaz is out.

– Notes On the Senate Transportation Budget

– Strangely, the only place I could find the news that Clayton Corzatte had died was a Gulf Coast newspaper. I did hear it on KUOW, but I didn’t see it on their webpage.

– I’m sure I wasn’t the only person from Seattle who read Monday’s XKCD and was sad that there’s a gap between San Francisco and Vancouver.

While Obama hasn’t released his budget yet, the reports are that it will include a proposal to include chained CPI for calculating Social Security inflation. It’s technical and if you manage to stay awake with a detailed explanation of it, congrats. The bottom line is that the calculations of inflation would rise more slowly on the assumption that seniors, people on Social Security Disability and widows would replace things for cheaper ones, so we can give out benefits at a lower rate than inflation.

I’m asleep just writing about it, but it’s a major benefit cut. To get out ahead of it, I’m writing Senators Cantwell and Murray and Representative McDermott (the 3 people who represent me in Congress). I hope you’ll do the same.

Dear Senators Murray and Cantwell and Representative McDermott;

I’m writing to ask you to oppose tying Social Security benefit increases to chained CPI instead of to to inflation. We should be looking at ways to increase benefits to seniors who’ve been paying into the system their whole lives, or at the very least preserving the current benefits.

Social Security is not in crisis right now. While some tweaks may be necessary down the line, they shouldn’t be made just to show that you’re doing something. it’s also abhorrent to talk about benefit cuts — either through this sort of thing or raising the retirement age — before raising or eliminating the earnings cap all together.

Thank you,

Carl Ballard

– Cycle Tracks

– Rodney Tom is a dick.

– People are complicated, but Michael Kelly still helped lead us into an unnecessary war.

– Margaret Thatcher has died.

– I’ve always been concerned with people who use Islamist.

– The death of ironic justice

I remember in the distant past at a group of activists trying to get the county I was living in at the time to build sidewalks on some street that was perceived (and probably was in fact) unsafe to walk in the shoulder. At some point someone suggested that the group just build its own sidewalk. There was some discussion about if we get the county’s permission or if we just go ahead and do it.

Nothing came of it, but the idea for that sort of DIY project that should be the government’s job as activism has always stuck in my head. So I was glad to read about this, even if it was only as a publicity stunt.

An extremely polite group of anonymous guerrilla road safety activists armed with $350 worth of reflective plastic pylons turned the painted Cherry Street bike lane under I-5 into a protected bike lane Monday morning.

The group—calling themselves the Reasonably Polite Seattleites—wanted to make a statement about how easy and affordable it would be for the city to use the method to make bike lanes safer all over the city. To stress how polite they are, they attached them using an adhesive pad for easy removal, according to an email sent to SDOT and Seattle Bike Blog.

I would really like to see some of these actions for real. Maybe don’t tell SDOT, and just put them up until they become part of the community, next time.

Obama, you’re better than this:

Speaking at a Bay Area fundraiser for the Democratic National Committee, the president said Harris is “brilliant,” “dedicated” and “tough.” Then he added, “She also happens to be, by far, the best-looking attorney general.”

According to reports from the fundraiser, the crowd laughed and Obama said, “It’s true! C’mon.”

Some cringed at the remarks, given the historic hurdles women have faced to be recognized for their accomplishments rather than their looks.

Ugh. No. I mean, I get it: you were trying to pay her a compliment, and it didn’t work. It ended up saying we should judge her on her looks on top of her brilliance, toughness and dedication. It happens, and now is the time to apologize.

– Who could have predicted the GOP budget would be a clusterfuck?

– the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Fortnight for would-be Pacific Northwest coal exporters

– Washington’s tax code is so full of holes it’s a doily

– The religious right are supporting Mark Sanford. Because of course they are.

– Thank God they protected us from Sharia Law!

– Hockey would be more interesting if they had hypersonic gas guns.

Rob McKenna had an editorial in The Seattle Times over the weekend about how the Republican party can come back. I guess I’m doing metacommentary on it.

Op-ed: How Republicans need to change in Washington state

Spoiler, it’s not how they can adjust their policies to be decent, it’s about branding. Now, I won’t say branding is totally bad, but you can only make a bad product look good for so long.

DEFEATS like those suffered by many of my Republican colleagues and me last November are cause for sober reflection, as opposed to finger pointing. Rather than focus on blaming others for our defeats, party leaders and activists should instead consider how changing demographics, rapid technological change and relatively swift shifts in public attitudes have contributed to the Democrats’ recent successes in our state and nationally.

Also, how Democrats’ policy positions have been good for those groups of people. There has been a long move over the last century from the Democrats being the whites only party to being the party of everybody deserves a spot at the table. The GOP has let itself become the party of white male identity politics, and they can’t shake that off without changing policy.

The challenge and opportunity for Republicans is in offering bold solutions that encourage more voters to support GOP candidates.

Fortunately, I’ve seen that constructive approach offered in recent weeks by leaders such as Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal, U.S. Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush, among others. All have championed forward-looking policies that will benefit all Americans, not just those in battleground states or among narrow constituencies.

Policies that I will say exist, but won’t say what they are.

I heard the same approach last month when I hosted a roundtable with Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus and two dozen of our state’s most active campaigners. I came out of that meeting impressed that Northwest Republicans, despite our losses, remain motivated to build the party and offer real alternatives to Olympia’s stale political culture.

What same approach? You didn’t say what the approach was, only that you think it exists. Name some policy that you think will help move people rather than some people.

If we want to be trusted to improve our public schools, grow our economy and govern more effectively, then as Northwest Republicans we must build stronger governing coalitions — and we need to welcome new people inside our party’s tent to do so. As Priebus said, we will win through addition and multiplication in our ranks, not through subtraction and division.

I’m not inherently opposed to what he’s trying to say. But again, it’s the GOP policy that isn’t inclusive. It’s the policy that’s cruel. It’s the policy that people don’t want. And even here, he says schools and the economy are important but doesn’t mention any actual policy for improving them. Anyway, blah blah blah, the national party. I’m skipping that.

In the ethnic and minority communities I visited while running for governor, I invariably received a warm welcome and much encouragement.

So I hired someone with a history of making fun of Asians on Twitter. Also, I didn’t mention policy.

And to be clear, if you want to reach out to minority communities, you have to actually reach out to minority communities. The Democrats were once the party of white supremacy and were worse for minorities than the Republicans are now. But the Democrats took the long, difficult, sometimes painful road to inclusion. It cost us the solid South (LBJ said for a generation, but he seems to have underestimated it), and probably more than a few elections in the North. But the party transformed itself by listening, and by actually changing policies. As Darryl’s post this afternoon demonstrates, that’s not something the GOP seems to be willing to do right now.

In the Sikh temples, at Latino and Asian-American community events, in meetings with African-American education reformers, and on the Indian reservations I revisited during my campaign — in all these communities and places, people expressed their appreciation for my presence. But they also asked, “Where are the other Republicans”?

Maybe this would be a good time to mention a policy change that happened when you went to those communities and listened to what they had to say.

They would go on to say, we have seen you many times outside of campaign season, but often our elected officials (in both parties) wait until election year to come around. That must change. In the deepest sense, Republicans “must be present to win,” as in winning over more support in these communities.

Mention policy.

Our candidates must improve their connection to our state’s many diverse communities. Before we can win their votes, we have to spend time in their communities, and not just in the few months before Election Day, to learn how their personal priorities align with Republican principles.

(a) Mention policy. (b) I love how this paragraph reads like like Rob McKenna knows that none of the GOP candidates might actually be from those communities he’s trying to get votes from. What we’re done with the part about trying to recruit minorities without mentioning policy? OK. I’m going to skip over most of the rest of it, and in fairness he will mention vague outlines of policy in his section on getting younger voters. I’d be remiss if I didn’t include this paragraph though:

Fortunately, we are starting from a competitive position in Washington state. In the governor’s race, I won majorities in five of 10 congressional districts, in 31 of the state’s 39 counties and collectively in the 47 legislative districts that were not located entirely within Seattle city limits. To put it in perspective, had fewer than 48,000 of the more than 3 million voters who cast ballots chosen differently, this would be a very different guest column.

TOO BAD WE LET SEATTLE VOTE. It’s always a great way to expand your votes by literally saying if we ignore a segment of the population, we’d have won.