I like Darcy Burner, and if I still lived in the 1st district, I might well vote for her in a primary for all the reasons Darryl described earlier today. I certainly made calls and knocked on doors for her both times she ran for Congress before. But I’ve also walked a few precincts for Roger Goodman and I gave money to Marko Liias. And I supported Laura Ruderman for Congress before Inslee got into the race in 1998, and thought it was classy when she got out of that race to run for the legislature to avoid a primary fight (today I’m more pro-primary fights, but that’s another story).

We’ve got a lot of good candidates running in the 1st district who have done a lot of good in government and in the community. I might well vote for any of them if I still lived up North. So here are a few quick stories about some of the non-rockstar candidates in the hope that you’ll give them a look too.

I don’t know how many times I heard that Roger Goodman couldn’t win supporting marijuana decriminalization. How he was out of touch with a supposedly conservative district and that one issue was going to destroy him. He’d be portrayed as a dirty hippie, and it didn’t matter how he came to the issue quite sensibly and that his actual resume was quite impressive, never mind that it’s obviously the right position. He did win, and he has been a leader in the legislature.

Of course earlier than that, the East Side was one of the safest parts of the state for Republicans. So in 1998 when Laura Ruderman won in the 45th district it was quite a big deal. Democrats have followed her lead ever since, making King County east of Lake Washington competitive. It’s true that in the legislature, she tended to stick to more bread and butter things like education. But for a legislator with a target on her back to get those sorts of things passed in the state house that was evenly split is a mark of a good legislator.

Unlike Goodman and Ruderman, I didn’t know anything about Marko Liias until he already was a legislator. But I somehow got wrangled into going to a fundraiser for him. I talked to him briefly and was impressed by the depth of knowledge about and commitment to public transportation from a suburban legislator. As someone who was pretty reliant on public transit growing up on the suburbs, I was glad to hear it.

All in all, first district Democrats have some great choices, and the coming months should be exciting to see all of the candidates stake out positions. It’ll be the first competitive Democratic primary in the district that I can remember, so it’ll be a great chance to define what it means to be a Democrat in the area. As someone who grew up in the district when it was pretty conservative, this is a great development.

– Another reason to Pass Prop 1.

– Um, GOP, just no.

– Shorter Michael Bloomberg: How dare you blame the banks for anything bad when the federal government exists?

– Kenmore Products Are Garbage, and Sears Is Terrible to Its Customers and Employees (and a follow up)

– Good news for Washington State’s working women, but there’s still further to go.

– I love this proposal. But what I love even more is when sports writers suggest a fundamental change to the game, and then are flexible about certain parts of it.

– The Rachel Maddow Show: the name to trust for the latest in meat-based technology (h/t).

If you’re offended by swearing, you may want to not read the rest of this piece. Also, you’re reading a blog called Horse’s Ass, so there’s that. Basically, what I’m saying is my parents might not want to read the rest of this piece.

What the fuck, Seattle Weekly? Look, I know since McGinn said the city wasn’t going to advertise in the Weekly as long as their parent company didn’t ID their adult service ads, the Weekly has been out to get McGinn. And it isn’t like they were super friendly before that. But fuck me if this isn’t the goddamn stupidest piece of shit public records request I’ve ever seen.

I mean yes, there are a few words in that list that are rightly off limits* and it would be a legitimate story if McGinn or his staff used them. But basically, any elected official or their staff who want to say “crap” is fine by me. Hell, I sort of expect a few fucks and shits.

In fact, I’m a little disappointed with McGinn’s team. Only 14 uses of swear words in a year and a half? That’s like a slow motherfucking thread here. Jesus Christ on the fucking cross, step up your game, guys.

And what the fuck kind of list is that any way? I’ve never made a public records request, but wouldn’t “fucking moron” “fucking idiot” and “fucking buffoon” all be covered under “fucking”? It seems like they’re trying to pad their swear count, and yet they leave a lot off.**

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– I’ve been reminded about how fitting the location is for them. Before Capitol Lake, that particular place was home to Little Hollywood, Olympia’s depression era shacktown. It was probably the most visible evidence of the Great Depression in town.

– Occupy Wish List

– I assume you’ve already bought your Halloween candy, but holy cow.

– Shorter Pudge: Congress forced me to keep my kids up late with its nefarious daylight savings time. (And From Carl, sunset is before 6:00. How early do Pudge’s kids need to be home?)

– Whoever is in charge of making signs for the NY Police protest needs to, um, try harder.

– It’s really annoying that jaywalking is ticketed. Also, apparently, not where the problem lies.

– If we’re not actually painting the map red, we can’t be an empire.

– Endemic.

– Sorry, Jon Stewart, but whenever you pick up right wing propaganda, you get it wrong. Community Power Works has so far done good work.

– It takes a walloping amount of willful cluelessness to look at a mass of people holding up signs and claim that they have no message.

– What?

– Whaaaaaat?

– Whaaaaaaaaaaaaaat?

– Transit Riders Union survey of Metro bus riders (and how you can help with it).

– Ordinary Muslim Man (h/t)

– the only high-class drink in history that involves Red Bull

Seriously, this has been online for a week:

Lynne Varner:[You might want to put a space here — Carl]Bruce: This.[Instead of a period here, you might want to put another space — Carl, again]story has reignited a local debate over the politics of the Pledge of Allegiance.

I agree with Lynne’s side here but what the fuck?

Also, I’m glad they’ve given up the pretense that this is a regular feature “Civil disagreements, with Lynne Varner and Bruce Ramsey of the Seattle Times editorial board, is an occasional feature of the Ed Cetera blog.” More honest, good job.

One of the things I most like about the Occupy movement is the fact that things get done. You’re standing around, and suddenly people need to move some supplies and the people around will help. Soup gets handed out(most days, generally). Pizzas get passed around. People from the legal group will work with people willing to get arrested or who are being arrested. In the announcements at the end of the General Assembly, someone will ask for help and usually get it even if there’s some begging. The work groups figure out what needs to be done and then either do it, or take it to the General Assembly. It’s not always a perfect process, and I’m not sure how long it can last after the excitement of the movement dulls. But for now it seems to work.

So when at the end of a recent General Assembly, someone asked for help cleaning the park, I shot my hand up, and was glad to do it. I didn’t mention that I was a blogger, so I’d say everything was off the record, and I won’t get into specifics (and I won’t say it was problem free). But I have to say, I loved sweeping up.

I loved seeing the park clean. I loved people thanking me for helping. I walked home after and noticed how much dirtier the streets were than at and around Westlake. More than going there regularly, more than participating in a General Assembly, more than giving a little money, this really felt like taking ownership of a part of Occupy Seattle. It’s certainly not as much as the people who stay at the park or who work more than me, but it was really a great feeling, especially as someone who has generally stayed more at arms length as a blogger than I might otherwise.

And so I’d encourage people, if you can, to put in an hour doing something. Go to General Assembly and wait for the announcements; someone will find something for you to do. Ask the people handing out food if they need help. Find a work group that you’d be interested in. Of course the more the better, but don’t be afraid to spend just a bit of time.

– A first hand account from Occupy Oakland (h/t)

– Not sure I care much one way or the other what Meghan McCain thinks of the Occupy movement.

– The city budget is going to have more pain, I’m afraid.

– Unprincipled, Illiterate, Hypocritical Douchebags

– Upcoming events for transit types

– Finally an explanation of Lord Monckton.

This started off as a comment over at Howie’s place, but I’ve reworked it for here.

Maybe it was reading this after a more successful General Assembly. Maybe the fact that I’ve never been to a GA where it rained. Maybe, I’m just an optimistic person. But I don’t think the General Assembly is “Robert’s Rules if Robert had, say, just ingested a pound of ecstasy.”

First off, I’ve been to plenty of Democratic Party and local government things with Robert’s rules of order or modified versions of them and occasionally, they just don’t flow smoothly. People will work very hard to get 50%+1 or 2/3+1, and then there will often be a large group with hurt feelings on the losing side. So, there is an advantage with letting everyone be heard and with trying to find consensus. It’s trying to do something that Robert’s rules don’t do, and it’s so far been fairly successful in a way that the GA probably wouldn’t have been if, for some reason, they’d adopted Robert’s.

Another upside is that it makes the proposals better. The proposal that passed on Monday night was more clear than the one Dominic saw lose earlier. It answered (some) concerns, and it was more forward looking.

The down side is that it took several days and a lot of time to make a decision. Hearing from everyone can be tough. It can be taxing on the vocal chords with the People’s Mic, and as Winter comes, it’ll be more rainy and colder than before, and time at the GA, no matter where it is, will be more valuable. So, while it isn’t a process I endorse for everything, I think it has been good for Occupy Seattle.

Roads were fine. Lots of people took the West Seattle Water Taxi (thanks Dow) or figured out an alternative method of getting to work. It looks like people, gasp, managed just fine. Although, it looks like the Walk the Viaduct event was a lot of fun.

– Today in false dichotomies: Urban America versus America.

– Congrats to Shaun for 9 8 years’ writing at Upper Left.

– Progressive Voter’s Guide. Pro-Choice Voter’s Guide.

– Sound Transit’s service revisions.

– Fauntleroy is safer and not noticeably slower after a road diet.

– Unless you’re living in a cardboard box, you have nothing to complain about.

Just a note, this post contains some racist language, and violence.

I go to Westlake more days than I don’t, even if I haven’t always reported everything up to the moment. If news isn’t breaking or something important happening, I’ll just write the same as if I’d been in my apartment. So when the incident in #3 happened, I was 10, 15 feet away, but I didn’t report on it because “crazy person is crazy” didn’t strike me as a story. But since it’s on Publicola, someone thinks it’s news, so here’s a quick summary:

It was at the General Assembly. That day it was under the trees. About 7:30, I guess; the GA had been going on for a while. There’s a core group that sits down, and there are people who stand at the edges and sometimes come in and out. Someone walks up to the Assembly and starts yelling. “Niggers. Fuck you niggers.” And a few people go to confront him. It looked from my angle like he just ran into one of the people who walked up to him, but someone said he threw a punch. Then he ran over to 4th. He was then tackled by several cops as he was running North down the sidewalk.

I honestly don’t think this says anything about either Occupy Seattle or the opposition to it. As far as I can tell, it was just a crazy person, and Publicola’s report doesn’t make me think anything different.

– As a liberal guy, I’ll say, this is fucked up (Also, wow) .

– The Abacus sign and a sign from Occupy Olympia.

– Handbills and posters for the weekend events at Occupy Seattle.

– During the 2008 Democratic primary, I was always quick to point out that it wasn’t particularly nasty as primary fights go. Certainly nobody was grabbing anybody.

– Of course, the title itself creates high hopes for Master Cantrall’s article, promising to fall right in line with the current wingnut weltanschauung that everything is socialist. Obama is a socialist. Public schools are socialist. Freeways are socialist. Stoplights are socialist. Glazed doughnuts are socialist. The 3-D version of “The Lion King” is socialist.

– It won’t get anywhere for now, but the GOP effort to ban discussion of abortion over the Internet is brazen even for Jim DeMint.

– When the machines take over, they won’t kill us outright. They’ll just program our GPS’s to make us drive around in circles.

Inevitably, when a bicyclist death by a car is in the news, asshole comments will try to figure out why the bicyclist is at fault. And maybe the bicyclist was acting stupidly. Maybe they were riding poorly, making themselves tough to see, etc. But the thing those comments miss is that drivers have a responsibility not to kill people.

And it’s not just cars and bikes. Anyone that’s a step up on size and safety has a special obligation not to hit something that’s a step down. I have friends who ride their motorcycles pretty dangerously. They ride ridiculously above the speed limit and ride between the lanes. They sometimes don’t wear helmets. Stupid, stupid; don’t do that. Still, if you’re a driver, have the wherewithal to not hit one, for Christ sake. Be aware of motorcycles long before they get to you, and check your fucking blind spots. Even if a motorcycle was driving poorly, if you want to be on the road, be a good enough driver that you don’t hit one.

Motorcycles and cars similarly have an obligation to be extra careful of bikes. Ideally, they’ll wear bright colors, have lights, and drive defensively. But even if they’re ninja riding the wrong way, you should be able to avoid them. Slow goddamn down, and chill the fuck out when you’re near one. If you hit one, after all, there’s a good chance they’ll die. And they aren’t even coming particularly fast.

And finally, cars, motorcycles, and bicycles have an obligation to avoid hitting pedestrians. While a car-pedestrian collision is more likely fatal than a bike-pedestrian one, in both cases, the driver and the bicyclist are moving faster than the pedestrian and will hit them with a hunk of metal. If you can’t avoid hitting a pedestrian, even one who’s jaywalking poorly. Even one obsessed with their phone, and not paying attention at all.

None of this is to say that motorcycles, bikes, and pedestrians shouldn’t look out for their safety, of course. Only that we’re sharing the space, and the larger modes have an obligation to the safety of the rest of the road.

– Mitt Romney is a terrible person.

– The Stranger’s endorsements.

– You guys, the anti car tabs people are totally grassroots.

– a dangerous, hypersexual, unhealthy, emotional, and enraged mass of unmarried drama.

– The New Yorker’s Occupy Wall Street cover.

– Milquetoasts