I was looking around editorial pages for something to make fun of, and instead I found this great opinion piece in the Yakima Herrald-Republic.

My faith is important to me. And I believe that religious faith is a fundamental human right that government should not restrict. My faith may be different from my evangelist neighbor’s in that I believe that two consenting adults who love each other should be allowed to be married no matter what their gender mix is, and I believe that more ethically responsible decisions can be made by women who have access to contraception and abortion services. So no, I don’t feel that my faith, anyway, is under attack.

But I do feel that something is amiss. Our Constitution, thankfully, says that government shall not restrict the free exercise of religion; but I don’t see in any of these examples the government doing that. The government is not requiring people to marry someone of the same gender, or mandating that people take birth control. I understand that filling a “Plan B” prescription may be counter to someone’s religious values, but that is not the same as exercising one’s religion. The Catholic Church is not being asked to actually take birth control pills; they are only being asked to provide reasonable coverage for health benefits like all other employers, and pharmacists are being asked to simply do their jobs. These examples have nothing to do with religious practice.

Yesterday I attended an open house for several transit agencies to discuss the elimination of the free ride area in September. It was mostly what you know already if you’re paying attention. Starting September 29, every route will be pay as you enter, and what’s now the free ride area will just be part of the Seattle zones for Metro and ST.

The one thing that I hadn’t realized (and I didn’t notice until I was reviewing one of the handouts on the way home, so I didn’t get to ask anyone about it) was that they are considering ways to help poor people get around. These include “increase the number of human service tickets provided to the agencies” and to “operate a free circulator.”

I wish I had a chance to ask someone about it, but the two questions that come to mind are who would operate it and how do they keep it from becoming a rolling homeless shelter? I assume that the question of who operates it hasn’t been worked out since the entire idea seems to still be up in the air. As for the homeless people: of course there should be services for them, but the bus isn’t that.

I’d like a circulator through the urban core (and both ways if it’s not just up and down the same street), free or not. But I’m not sure free is the better way to go.

You know, I hate to say it, but the trolls are right. This blog isn’t fair to conservatives. We exclude their voices and we don’t take them seriously. That’s why I’m glad to see we’ve added Rob McKenna’s Twitter feed to the side bar. Sure he’s a Republican who presumably nobody writing on this blog will vote for, but it’s important to have his voice.

We can dramatically increase state spending on K-12 education by dramatically decreasing spending on teachers. It’s #McKennaMath

I endorse Michael Bumgardener for US Senate! Watch out, Miss. Cantwell!

I’ve always felt it inappropriate for elected officials to endorse in pres. primaries. Except for 2008, 2004, & 2000. That was different.

So welcome aboard Rob.

An all local open thread, but feel free to talk about whatever you want in the comments.

– Puget Sound Energy owns the biggest chunk of the power (and the pollution) coming from the Colstrip coal plant in eastern Montana, which is the second-largest coal-fired power plant west of the Mississippi.

– This is about the greatest picture I’ve ever seen.

– City Council member Tim Burgess failed to pass a proposed amendment to the city’s comprehensive plan this morning saying that the city supports homeless encampments only at religious institutions.

– Solid endorsements for DelBene.

– Financial fitness day.

– Trail updates

– Strangest opening day ever.

I’ve been reluctant to write the following piece. I mean, what about the white guy’s experience isn’t the most useful frame for the Trayvon Martin case. And unlike the founder of this blog, I try to keep my personal life personal; the most I usually write about myself is I took my bike somewhere. Still, the discussion of the stand your ground laws make me think of the time my housemate was killed, and I wonder what might have happened if we’d had stand your ground laws here in Washington like those in Florida.

Basically, the story is this: After college, I was underemployed and bumming around suburbia. Eventually, I moved into a house with several other people. The house was advertised in the local paper and I didn’t know any of the people before I moved in. It was cheap while I got myself onto a better situation.

It was a large house and people moved in and out all the time. One couple moved in and was constantly late on payments and was constantly getting into arguments with the landlord.

One weekend the landlord shot him and then claimed self defense. The forensic evidence didn’t back up his claims, and eventually he plead down and will be in prison for a long time, but I wonder if it would have been easier for him to concoct a story if we had those sorts of laws, and if it would have been a tougher case for prosecutors.

I’m thinking of doing another round of candidate questions like I did for Seattle City Council last year. Since unlike City Council, most of these races are partisan, and I have no qualms about being a Democrat, I’ll have to start asking questions sooner, so they cover the primary. I was thinking the open seats in Seattle and the the executive offices with more than one Democrat running.

Like last time, it would be the same set of questions emailed to all of the candidates, so no when-you-were-mayor questions to Nickles, for example. And of course, they may or may not answer them. But I’d be willing to ask different things of different legislative districts. So my question: is this something you’d like to see. And if so, are there any questions you’d like asked, or positions other than those that you’d like me to ask questions to?

– What Everyone Needs To Know About The Smear Campaign Against Trayvon Martin (1995-2012)

– There’s quite a bit to take in in this Joan Walsh piece.

– Hoodies. (h/t)

– Maintain your bargaining rights

– I can confirm that skinny people are HELLA SMART. It’s a direct correlation. The younger and skinnier you are, the more of a fucking genius you are. In fact, my broom regularly beats me at chess.

– Apple Core

– I can think of no swifter route to the GOP becoming a national and international laughingstock than, in their moment of doubt and crisis, turning to a proven charlatan and ignoramus like Palin as their unifying great white (and I do mean white) hope.

– Yay! (h/t)

– Open letter to Christopher Monckton

I know it’s super provincial, but I don’t care: I love it when Seattle and Washington State get mentioned in the New York Times, especially for good things.

Nationwide, women’s groups point out the glaring gender disparity in public life, noting that there are only 6 female governors and 17 female senators. Across the country, women make up 23.6 percent of state legislatures, according to Off the Sidelines, a project started last year by Senator Kirsten E. Gillibrand of New York. But in Washington State, women’s serving in public office has been as consistent as the rain.

“Every once in a while a note or a letter will mention it,” Ms. Gregoire said. “But mostly, it’s taken for granted.”

Courtney Gregoire, her daughter, would relay differences between Washington State and Washington, D.C., where she worked as the director of the National Export Initiative at the Commerce Department. She found herself biting her tongue when men mentioned her age (she is 32), and she started wearing pantsuits to appear older. Once, after being the lone woman in a meeting of 25, she called her mother.

The governor replied, “Welcome to how it was for us.”

There’s still a lot of work for equal representation here in Washington. A lot of women are retiring from the legislature this year. I mentioned a while ago that we might not have any women elected executive officers come November. I don’t think the Democratic party has done a particularly good job in recent years of recruiting women.

Also, the Norm Dicks quote (if it was in context) makes me glad he’s retiring.

“I think women tend to advocate for women, and I think to myself, ‘They ought to mention men, too,’ ” he said. “When I’m running, I’m not just talking about men, I’m talking about men, women and children. I think women in politics have to be a little careful not to act as if they’re just representing women.”

Ms. Cantwell, Ms. Gregoire and Ms. Murray have campaigned together, he said, and Ms. Murray in particular has focused on recruiting women to run for public office.

“All of that is great but I feel like, ‘Can’t they find a good man to run sometimes?’ ” Mr. Dicks said.

If only men would run for office sometimes.

– Yesterday was the anniversary of the Triangle fire. If you haven’t seen it, I’d also recommend the American Experience on the topic.

– God, covering a Congressional debate should be rip roaring fun and instead it’s B-O-R-I-N-G. Imagine at a labor debate, labor questions being asked!

– Over on the TeeVee, Fox news reported the story and invited people to comment on the network’s blog. The result was a whole lot of ugly.

– Breitbrats is my new favorite word.

– The outer reaches of plot twists.

The other day I took a bike ride down the waterfront. I have to say the bike trail in the Southern part is pretty cool. I hope they expand that all the way up and maybe to the Sculpture Park. Still, riding by some of the recently torn out tracks from the old waterfront streetcar hit me surprisingly hard.

Sure, it’s tough to mourn a line that hasn’t been in service for the better part of a decade: Nobody really believed the route would come back any time soon, and with the tunnel, it has been a done deal for some time that they’d never have that streetcar along the waterfront. I’ve said before that I’m fine in theory with the bus route that replaced it, although I wish it ran both ways and more frequently.

Still, seeing the gravel beds without the tracks had a sense of permanence that the things in the above paragraph don’t. If you’d asked me before, I would have told you that the streetcar wasn’t coming back. But now I can say it with more conviction.

If this piece was written by anyone but Lou Guzzo (his archives are funky, scroll down to March 17), I’d assume it was satire on the hype around the NFL draft. For Guzzo, I think he thinks it’s a good idea.

Why Not Draft Opera Singers, Actors Like the NFL Does It?

Because it’s a terrible idea. Because nobody thinks it’s unfair that the best opera singers go to the best operas? I’m going to feel bad making fun of this if it’s actually satire.*

I’ve been an incurable football nut almost since birth, but even I have the feeling that the annual shindig called the National Football League draft is terribly overdone as entertainment, despite the valiant efforts of the league and the various owners to make it seem like the rebirth of old-time vaudeville.

Sure. Fans only have 16 games and a relatively short playoff, and they love the game, so they get excited when things like the draft, the combine, and the when next season’s schedule comes out. That’s fine: if there’s a market for it, let people watch it. People get excited about all sorts of things.

After all, what on earth is so exciting about watching an annual supermarket for excessively high priced human beef? Why in the world don’t we get that hysterical, say, over drafting talent in many other walks of life. Let’s say, grand opera, for instance. I can just hear the announcer at a Grand Opera “draft” now:

Why don’t we get hyst… Why… don’t we get that hysterical over drafting opera singers? For starters, we can’t really get excited about an event that doesn’t happen. Second, the event doesn’t happen because the operas don’t compete against each other in a league so there wouldn’t be anyone to organize the draft. And third even if there was an opera league, singers can go wherever they want to perform.

“And now, folks, please give me your undivided attention. Here is the announcement we’ve all been waiting for. Speight Jenkins, general manager of the Seattle Opera Company, will step up to the microphone and announce his first pick from among the tenors. Speight….”

Does Lou Guzzo think the NFL drafts by position? Otherwise, why would he have a pick among the tenors? Is this satire? Isn’t satire supposed to be funny?

“Ladies and gentlemen of the opera world, it gives me the greatest pleasure to report that our first draft choice is Mario Lungbuster, lyric tenor from the Cincinnati Conservatory! Mr. Lungbuster, will you please come up here to the microphone so I can introduce you properly.”

Was there any point of this paragraph?

(Can you hear the audience cheering and shouting “Bravo! at the top of the operatic registers?)

No.

The announcer returns for a moment: “Mr. Jenkins! Mr. Jenkins! Will you please answer a few questions for our TV and radio audiences? You can? Good! OK. Here’s one from a woman in our audience. She wants to know why you selected Mario in the very first round — and can you afford to sign him to a contract?”

It sounds like this plan would make opera worse.

Mr. Jenkins: “Well, our regular tenor is still recovering from rib fractures suffered when he tried lifting the well-built soprano from the sofa in ‘La Traviata,’ and then a day later he really aggravated the injury when he fell off his horse in ‘Aida,’ but managed to finish the opera in great pain. We need a backup dramatic tenor.

“Mario is just the ticket. He’s short on experience, but he proved he knows how to go for the high notes without straining his, if you’ll pardon the expression, stomach muscles. Besides, he has well developed arm and back muscles so he’ll be able to hoist those overweight sopranos when they lean on him in the middle of a tearful aria. Oh, and to answer the second part of your question, we can afford to sign Mario to a long-term contract, but we may not have enough in the bank to pay for all his bills from his chiropractor.”

Wouldn’t anyone in a draft by necessity be short on experience? Also, Lou doesn’t seem to realize that this is a set of horrible jokes at the expense of made up people.

OK, enough already. In the same way, the symphony might use its No. 1 draft choice to replace its fumbling flutist with a Juilliard All-Star. Or, if you want to consider what the draft might do for theatrical companies, the Reportory Theater might gamble on a matinee idol who led the nation in free passes at the U.S.C. School of Drama.

Or they could pay a flutist or an actor on the market like they do now. There’s no advantage to this plan.

Say, you know something’ A culture draft might not be such a bad idea, at that, all jokes and hilarity aside. Just give me a minute, will you please? I have to make an important phone call. Dum-de dum-dum…. Hello, Seattle Opera? Would you please get me the boss, Mr. Speight Jenkins?

What hilarity? Is “Dum-de-dum-dum” the sound phones make in Guzzo’s world? Do the people answering the phones at the Seattle Opera need to be told the name of their artistic director? Like all Lou Guzzo pieces this left me with more questions than answers.

[Read more…]

– Transportation Action Agenda

– I’m glad to see the rest of the country realize that Cathy-McMorris-Rodgers is pretty awful.

– Bootstraps.

– Jay Inslee at Bike Works.

– If you only count the Catholics who vote for Rick Santorum, he has 100% of the Catholic vote.

– Mitt Romney is the Etch a Sketch candidate.

Yesterday a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the office door of a Texas state legislator. They haven’t caught the person who did it and it’s not known what the motive was. We do know that the legislator in question, Wendy Davis of Fort Worth, was a woman. She was pro choice and she was a Democrat.

Now we don’t know if this was an unhinged person or if it was political calculation (or both) and obviously people are responsible for their own actions. But these things happen within a larger context. And I hope the people fomenting hatred of women who gloated when Dr. Tiller was murdered will at least consider this as a reason to tamp down the rhetoric.

… An arrest was made late last night. So far everything above stands.

– Nothing like financial lectures from The Seattle Times.

– What Everyone Should Know About Trayvon Martin

– I missed the earthquake over the weekend.

– Who would want a tour of anything with Dick Morris?

– The let doctors lie bills are among the most awful of the horrible anti-abortion bills.

– National Council on Education for the Ceramic Arts means there will be exhibits throughout the area.

– The question on everyone’s mind.

Look, having 2 first district elections (one for the old seat from certification until the new seat is filled and one for the new) is a bit strange. But people can figure it out. Or as The Seattle Times implies: the dummies who vote will get all confused.

U.S. REP. Jay Inslee already has confounded 1st Congressional District voters by quitting his job, leaving constituents unrepresented in the months ahead. The Bainbridge Island Democrat leaves Congress this week to devote more time to running for governor.

Hey, remember when I said I thought the legacy media types who were always asking for Inslee to talk more about local issues would like that move? Whoops!

1st District residents would vote to fill the seat for December. Voters in the new 1st District would pick the two-year representative.

Bad idea. Too confusing for everyone.

You know how when an initiative that The Seattle Times agrees with passes they’re all about the will of the people will of the people will of the people? Those people will apparently be too confused by one election with Goodspaceguy and some people looking to get their name in the paper and one with the actual candidates. People on Bainbridge will apparently think they get two members of Congress now. Really, who cares?