I’m never particularly thrilled when debate behind the scenes are the news. But there will be another debate in New York. I’m generally happy with more debates, so yay.

But I’m even less happy when I see the names of the moderators. Not because I think, in this case CNN people and a local reporter, will be fuck ups. But I don’t think we actually need moderators. I say just have the candidates have a conversation. Sanders and Clinton are both smart people with interesting things to say. They don’t need Wolf Blitzer to coax a debate out of them. If it’s on a network like CNN, you can have someone say they’re going to commercial, but otherwise butt the hell out.

Well, it’s pretty dispiriting that Inslee let the charter schools bill become law. I don’t know what I could add on the policy since the last time I wrote about charters. It would be nice if we could fund education before we start these sorts of things. This won’t take money directly out of public schools, but it will take it away from ancillary things.

If the legislature were serious about charters, they could have had a new revenue source rather than one that already goes to educational sources. But of course, charters were never about improving the quality of education so much as an attempt to break the unions.

Oh hey. It’s April Fools Day. AKA, the day to ignore any press release. AKA, why the fuck is this a holiday? I mean, I’m sure there’s some backstory if you Google it. But pranks are generally a not fun way to kick down. Great job of a holiday, everybody.

This morning as I was looking at The Seattle Times’ editorials, hoping for something to write about when I came across this editorial on the special session. It’s so Seattle Times, that you know the jokes I’d have made. They’d go like this:

• Stop obsessing about process over results, assholes
• You can’t complain about what the legislature cut if you don’t propose other cuts, or more taxes, assholes
• That’s not really a fair characterization of Inslee’s vetoes, assholes

Etc.

But what I want to focus on here is much more specific:

This time, the gimmicks included taking $227 million over coming years from a fund that pays for municipal bridges and sewer projects. It also wrongly wiped away $10 million to pay for performance audits of government agencies. Taxpayers want more efficiency, not a neutered watchdog.

That’s not how neutering works. Seriously, unless you’re breeding a dog, get it neutered. Here’s what the Humane Society has to say if you’re interested:

Myth: Neutering will take away the “guard dog” instincts.
Not true: Neutering a dog does not reduce its ability as a guard dog or watch dog. He will still be as protective of his territory as he was before the surgery.

So, what is it that a neutered watchdog would actually mean about performance audits? They’ll be fine, but the performance audits won’t have kids? They’ll hump fewer legs? They’ll be less likely to run away looking for sex? I mean I know metaphors are often imperfect, but the fuck are we even talking about?

And this is a dangerous myth to spread. We don’t need more unwanted puppies out and about. And as the Humane Society post I linked to earlier mentioned, not neutering a pet can make them go free-roaming. So dogs are more likely to get lost or get hit by a car. This throw away line is so bad, it may be the second worst thing someone at The Seattle Times has ever done for dogs.

I guess can kicking budget is better than no budget. And the legislature passed a can-kicking-no-new-taxes budget. There will surely come a point when the legislature’s being in contempt for failing to do their job will actually make them act, right? Right?

I didn’t go to the University of Washington, but because I went to a school with no athletic department to speak of, I tend to root for them in college athletic competition. I mean, I mostly ignore college athletics. But when I get drawn into a game, they’re at the top of who I root for. That’s to say, holy cats, what a game from the UW Women’s basketball team yesterday. They got an early lead and never fell behind after that. It has been quite a run, and now they’re in the final 4, where they face Syracuse.

I haven’t had a chance to study the ST3 draft system plan in any depth. But I like what I’ve seen so far. A Graham Street Station and Light Rail to Ballard are probably highlights for me. I imagine suburbanites have their favorites.

For decades of me paying attention to national politics, I’ve been a great admirer of Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders:

I was never the biggest fan of Bill Clinton: His administration’s tack to the center was always harmful. It was certainly better than Bush or Dole, but it seemed at the time that he could do better. Still, there were people in the administration who pushed it to the left. Hillary Clinton was one of those people. The most important frame for me was her speech on the U.N. 4th World Conference on Women (video). And I think that, both the specifics and the fact that she — the First Lady — said it were important.

Also, her willingness to call out the bullshit thrown against her impressed me. Her use of the phrase “a vast right-wing conspiracy” was important at a time when so many liberals were unwilling to defend the administration from that sort of thing. When a lot of lefties pretended that Whitewater was probably a thing and just laughed when people said they were drug dealing murderers. It was important to be able to have a phrase that described what was going on. Given that these were people who drove a good friend of hers to suicide and then pretended that she’d murdered him, given that these were the same people who accused her of hanging crack vials on the White House Christmas tree, given that these were the people who impeached a president, it had to be called out, and it was the right wording.

All right, but rhetoric is one thing. Wasn’t she a conservative Democrat with her votes when she got to the Senate? No. (h/t) Certainly the Iraq war vote was bad. It wasn’t the only problem. But that’s typical of any Senator. She was a consistently liberal voice. One of the most liberal Democrats in the Senate.

But there’s a lot of room in this country to the left of a fairly liberal Democrat. And I’ve always admired Sanders’ voice as a socialist in the House and Senate. I’ve always admired that he has been able to make that push happen without being a vanity candidate or throwing seats to the Republicans. I’ve always admired that he wears his passion on his sleeve. And I’ve admired that, at least in Burlington, he has left a legacy after he left office, with Socialists still able to keep control after he was elected to Congress by running the town well.

So I’ve been neutral up to now. But the Washington caucuses are coming up this Saturday. You can get more info, including finding your location here. My plan is to go in as undecided, so I can keep thinking about it up to the last possible moment, as if knowing about both of them since the early 1990’s isn’t enough time. If there are enough votes for undecided to get a delegate, great! Otherwise, I’ll have to pick.

So feel free to use this as a discussion thread of your plans for caucusing. It’s this Saturday at 10:00 for Democrats, and at I can’t be bothered to look it up for Republicans.

Or if you want to try to convince an actual swing voter (me) for your candidate, go for it. For what it’s worth, negative stuff about fake Clinton scandals or nonsense like Sanders isn’t electable won’t help your cause at least with me.

So…a guy in a tree? I don’t know. It’s sad that he’s still up there. Also, we all decided “stuck” was the right word to describe it, even though it sounds like he’s staying voluntarily. I don’t want to speculate too much based on my basically scanning social media headlines, so I won’t. I will just say, I like the tree more than Seattlish.

So this happened over the weekend.

You guys! pic.twitter.com/9YAy9I2deh

— Carl Ballard (@BallardCrl) March 19, 2016

If you care about the opening of the new line, other people have said more interesting things than me. But here’s my 2 cents anyway.

This isn’t such a new thing in the way that the line from the airport to Westlake was. That being the first line and all. But it being on time and under budget, as well as a useful extension is promising. The stations are beautiful, and in great locations.

the only real negative for me was that I was a bit claustrophobic getting off at the U-Link station. I wandered around a bit before getting on the escalators but still felt boxed in. I hope at some point we get better as a city at stand to the right walk on the left.

All in all, quite good. I imagine I’ll take it pretty regularly. It’s a bit far from the Capitol Hill station, but if it isn’t raining too bad, you can take the train to Drinking Liberally.

One of the more interesting stories last Tuesday’s primary wasn’t a Presidential race. It was in Cook County where a prosecutor with the support of Black Lives Matter won opposing the worst abuses of the incumbent and ending the school to prison pipeline. I don’t know enough to have any opinion on how it’ll play out going forward. But from the outside it seems like the right local people are excited.

That got me thinking: Here in King County, we have a prosecutor who, while better than Cook County is still a problem. To cite the most prominent example, he didn’t prosecute Ian Berk after he was unjustified in killing John T. Williams.

It’s 2 more years until Satterberg is up for reelection if he decides to run again. And he won his first election fairly easily. Still, it seems like something for lefty activists in King County might be able to pull off if they found the right candidate.

If people reading this blog know one thing about me, it’s probably my politics. If they know anything else about me, it’s my sense of humor. But somewhere on the list is my love of the library. Seattle has a great system. New York where I grew up also has a great system, but I honestly don’t remember much about it. What I remember more is that I have family near the first public library paid for with tax money in the country, and hearing that history over the course of many summers rubbed off on me.

Currently, I have 4 books checked out of the Seattle Public Library and I spend far too much time managing my hold list. I’ve recently started reading comics for the first time since I was a kid, and the graphic novel selection is great. I doubt I’d have gotten into them if not for being able to check out some, often pretty silly ones, for free.

Anyway, all this to say fuck the Koch brothers for making anti-library robocalls. What kind of monsters do that?

Having been kicking around local lefty Internet circles for (approximately) ever I’m glad that we have Andrew Villeneuve and Northwest Progressive Institute around. From his activism against Tim Eyman, to helping build the netroots and his role as part of that netroots, Andrew has been a great part of the community. There were many times when I used to do multi-link open threads or tried on the old blog to at least have one local link a day and going to the Progressive Portal or the Regional Blogroll.

And while I’m always more of a build community on the Internet kind of person, Andrew and NPI are just as much in on the ground stuff. Permanent Defense goes after Tim Eyman in a real way, and the fundraising gala attracts a lot of big name people every year.

Well, the fundraising gala is happening again, and this year is no exception:

What: A special event to benefit the work of the Northwest Progressive Institute
Who: U.S. Representative Adam Smith, former Seattle City Councilmember Tina Podlodowski, and additional speakers to be announced
When: Friday, April 1st, 2016 | Reception starts at 6:15 PM, main program at 7 PM
Where: Mercer Island Community & Events Center
8236 SE 24th Street, Mercer Island, 98040

I know a billion people in politics ask for your money. But NPI are good people and it looks like a fun event if you can make it.

I saw a countdown clock to St. Patrick’s Day recently that had days, hours, and minutes. I realized that it’s counting down to Midnight on St. Pat’s. I may be a bit of a prude, but I suspect that if anyone is in a bar at 11:59 on an weekday, they’re not waiting on the holiday to start drinking. I mean, I get that it’s a big drinking day but I think there’s time enough to not have to be up to the minute.

Also, please don’t yell “wooooooooooo” right outside my apartment. What? You’ll yell “woooooooooo” wherever you damn well please? OK.

I’ve been feeling a bit under the weather lately, so this Open Thread and possibly future ones will be a bit less than the already (sorry) less than I’d want output.