This conference should be of interest to anyone contributing (or wanting to contribute) to progressive politics in our region:

The NWroots Conference is the annual gathering of the region’s netroots community and liberal minded political activists – hosted by the NWroots Fellowship with support from the Northwest Progressive Institute. It is an unbeatable opportunity for local writers, readers, activists, elected leaders, and progressive candidates to meet in person and learn from each other – with panels, a candidates’ social, keynote addresses, and workshops.

Feature speakers include Congressman Jay Inslee, Congressman Jim McDermott, Former Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh, WSLC President Jeff Johnson, and 4th Congressional District candidate Jay Clough.

Special performance by the Total Experience Gospel Choir.

What: NWroots Conference
Where: Swannies Comedy Undergound, 109 S. Washington Street, Seattle, 98104
When: Saturday, July 9th
Why: Teach, learn, organize, strategize, socialize, network, have fun.

What are you waiting for? Register today!

Rob Sargent
NWroots
(425) 941-3134

Here are some more details about the program:

Jill Richardson is flying in from San Diego to present two sessions on agriculture and public policy. Jill is an author, political activist,
founder of Lavidalocavore.org, and expert on food systems and sustainable farming. Her book, Recipe for America, explains our messed up food system in an understandable way, and offers specific policy recommendation to make it better. In her first session, Jill will talk about the focus of her book and lead a discussion about agriculture policy. In a second session, she will address the worldwide influence of Monsanto on agriculture, followed by a group discussion. Jill was just featured at Netroots Nation in Minneapolis.

In addition to Jill’s sessions, we will have small group presentations/discussions on health care, labor, the media, electronic voting, immigration, the mortgage crisis, and a documentary on Afghanistan followed by a group discussion.

To stir things up, we’ve added Ohio Congressman Dennis Kucinich to the program. Kucinich will join 4th Congressional District Candidate Jay Clough, Congressman Jim McDermott, and former Canadian Health Minister Ujjal Dosanjh at the afternoon general session. The opening session will be kicked off by Congressman Jay Inslee, followed by University of Washington graduate and “dreamer” Alonso Chehade. Chehade faces possible deportation if the Dream Act fails to pass. Alonso will later lead a session where the group will discuss immigration policy. Labor leader Jeff Johnson will close out the morning session. He will also facilitate a smaller group discussion on the role of labor in politics and the new political strategy. Mr. Johnson is President of the Washington State Labor Council.

In addition to the general session and smaller, breakout sessions, there will be a candidates social, a special musical performance by the Total Experience Gospel Choir, and an after-party at the Central Saloon.

(This is an open thread.)

Please join us tonight for a special Drinking Liberally with Living Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs.

Justin is on his “538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal” book tour. The book is about the little ideas for embracing your progressive values in everyday life, as well as the big ideas of what it means to be a “liberal” in America today.

Bring your copy of the book (or the Weekly Standard cover, for that matter) for Justin to sign. Copies of the book will be available at the event.

We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to earlier for dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 229 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

No…not me. Don’t be silly.

It’s Sarah Palin.

She has, apparently, quit halfway through her “One Nation” bus tour:

Though Palin and her staff never announced a timeline for the remaining legs of her trip, aides had drafted preliminary itineraries that would have taken her through the Midwest and Southeast at some point this month. But those travel blueprints are now in limbo, RCP has learned, as Palin and her family have reverted to the friendly confines of summertime Alaska, where the skies are currently alight for over 19 hours a day and the Bristol Bay salmon fishing season is nearing its peak.

The early stages of her tour resulted in two huge stories. First, her upstaging Mitt Romney—rude showmanship even by a Republican standard of nastiness. And second, her babbling, twisted rendition of Paul Revere’s midnight ride.

Ouch! She did more damage than good to herself during the early part of the tour because, you know, the “lamestream” media is so mean her and out to get her. And once again Sarah response is a triumph of narcissism over political sensibility. She takes her ball and goes home.

“I quit!”

There will be no Drinking Liberally Seattle this evening. Tomorrow (Wednesday) we have a special Drinking Liberally with Living Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs.

Justin is on his “538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal” book tour. The book is about the little ideas for embracing your progressive values in everyday life, as well as the big ideas of what it means to be a “liberal” in America today.

Justin has toured the book to over 65 cities in 35 states and happily won the mockery of the conservative Weekly Standard which featured him in a cover story in July.

Bring your copy of the book (or the Weekly Standard cover, for that matter) for Justin to sign. Copies of the book will be available at the event.

We meet at our usual spot, the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm.

Drinking Liberally Seattle meets weekly on Tuesday nights except for this week because of Justin’s visit.

Sammamish High School graduate, and Washington state gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna is looking like a case study of the failure of our schools to teach basic, real world, mathematical skills. (Have at it Cliff Mass!)

The short version: Rob McKenna attempts to do an analysis of Washington state budgets…and ends up soiling himself.

Rob McKenna was pushing some awfully fishy numbers during his campaign kick-off (via Goldy):

Here is some red meat from McKenna’s “triumphant” speech:

I went back and I crunched the numbers for the state budget to figure out where the spending’s been going—what’s been driving it. I looked at one 10-year period: 1998 to 2008. And what I discovered is that, in that 10 year period, every single year the state increased the amount it spent per employee by 5 percent, every year for 10 years.
[…]

In that same 10-year period, the state increased the amount it spent on state worker benefits by 9 percent a year every single year for 10 years.

Goldy calls bullshit:

The fact is that by every rational measure, state government has been shrinking over the past few decades, in per-capita spending, per-capita taxes, per-capita state workers, and most importantly, as a percentage of the economy, with state general fund revenues falling from 6.9 percent of personal income in 1995 all the way down to 4.7 percent today. McKenna may sound smart and informed and trustworthy and all that, but he’s just not being honest with voters.

He digs even deeper into the bullshit here. But, you know, Goldy is just a filthy blogger journalist for a vile, extreme leftist blog newspaper, so what does he know?

Now the AP is on the case. And they can dig a little deeper because, unlike Goldy who is blacklisted by the McKenna campaign, the AP can ask follow-up questions of McKenna.

Their conclusion?

Problem is, a couple of McKenna’s key numbers were wrong, exaggerating the speed of government growth.

McKenna, who currently serves as attorney general, described his statistics in slightly different ways during both an interview with The Associated Press and his campaign speech. After The AP repeatedly questioned the validity of the statistics, his campaign provided details on how he reached his totals. Those written calculations indicated that he was using faulty math.

The crux of the problem is that McKenna doesn’t understand the basic mathematics of compounding growth. On his claim that the state annually “increased the amount it spent per employee by 5 percent “:

McKenna reached his incorrect numbers after seeing a 48 percent growth over the decade. His supporting documents indicate that he took that number and divided by 10 years to reach his conclusion about 5 percent annual growth.

But annual growth can’t be calculated so easily. Because each year’s increase compounds on top of the last, a 5 percent annual growth for 10 years would end up being 63 percent growth for the decade — not 48 percent.

The correct number is 3.6 percent per year, which is pretty much the same as the 3.5 percent average for all of Washington state over the same period.

As to McKenna’s claim that the state annually increased benefits by “9 percent a year…for 10 years”? Nuh-uh. Same error:

To reach his 9 percent number, McKenna relied on the same questionable math he used to calculate the salary figures. The state’s overall spending for worker benefits actually rose an average of 7.1 percent annually during that time.

Average benefit increases per employee were even less, growing by about 5.4 percent each year, with rising health care costs driving up expenses just like in the private sector.

What the AP missed, and what Goldy points out, is that the benefits calculation is the largest component of the “amount [the state] spent per employee” increase McKenna raised first. But it comes off as in addition to the first (erroneously calculated) number.

McKenna’s speech is dishonest in other ways, as both Goldy and the AP points out. He implies a 13 percent per year increase in number of state employees, when the 13 percent actually refers to the increase over a decade. Oopsies!

Dishonesty is bad in a politician even though we have acquired a certain immunity that seem to allow politicians like McKenna to get away with fabrication and distortion.

My beef is with McKenna’s inability to work with the most elementary of budget mathematics. The AP has flat-out busted McKenna for his failure to understand the mathematics of growth—the same math one uses for understanding investment interest, population growth, budget projections, mortgage costs, etc.

Governors don’t really have to understand the Fundamental Theorem of Integral Calculus or the Pythagorean theorem.

But, holy shit, incompetence with the elementary mathematics of budget growth? That makes a Rob McKenna in the Governor’s seat nothing short of a fiscal calamity waiting to happen for Washington state.

Young Turks: Schwarzenegger mistress tells all to Hello Magazine.

Glenn Beck blames Ed Schultz:

Newsy: Federal Judge upholds gay Judges Prop-8 ruling.

Rat and Cenk: Republicans are fiscally responsible? How about the missing 6.6 Billion dollars?

Republican teabaggingfest Debate:

• Jon: Second Republican debate is a success (via OneGoodMove).
• Young Turks: Who lost?
• Ed and Pap: Republicans dig their own grave with pathetic candidates.
• Newsy: Who came out on top?
• Ed: Who won? Part I
• Ed: Who won? Part II
• Lawrence O’Donnell: GOP Candidates stance on the economy is pure baloney.

Cenk: Teabagger Summer Camp for Kids.

Stephen: GOP would win Presidency if not for those meddling kids (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Newsy: Wisconsin Republicans further gains in their War on Workers.

Bill Maher with some New Rules.

Young Turks: TX Gov. Rick Perry claims he is a ‘Prophet’.

President Mittens:

• Mittens tells unemployed Floridians that he is unemployed.
• Maddow: Mitt’s own voter fraud, Part I
• Maddow: Mitt’s own voter fraud, Part II
• Kinda creepy. Mittens jokes that a waitress grabbed his ass (via TalkingPointsMemo):
• Stephen: The Business End (via OneGoodMove).

Newsy: NY on the verge of allowing gay marriage.

Cenk: Newt’s 3rd wife is behind his staff quitting.

Thom: The good, the bad, and the very very ugly.

Sam Seder: Catherine Harris calls in on behalf of her friend Michelle Bachmann.

More at the Weiner Roast:

• Mark Fiore: Suzie Newsykins on why Rep. Weiner made the world a better place.
• SCTV: A scandal worse than Anthony Weiner’s:
• Young Turks: Larry Flynt offers Anthony Weiner a job
• Olbermann: Does Boehner have his own sex scandal popping up? (Via Crooks and Liars.)
• Newsy: Weiner’s pension plan comes under fire
• Cenk and Rachael: Resignation.
• Newsy: Move over Rambama…the Weiner Dolls are here!
• Young Turks: Is Weiner a secret Muslim???

Sam Seder: Who are Santorum’s gay friends?

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Wingnut talk show host says to kill Blacks.

Ed and Pap: Sissy conservatives are afraid of EVERYTHING.

Texas Legislator: “Too many Hispanics in the Legislature (via Crooks and Liars).

Michelle Bachmann’s unrivaled extremism.

Cenk: Paul Ryan’s budget benefits his family.

Most Offensive Ad Ever:

• Most offensive ad ever? New Republican ad is like “Willie Horton on steroids” (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Ed: Most ‘racist, sexist’ ad ever (via Crooks and Liars).
• Newsy: Attack ad called racist and sexist.
• Chris Hayes: Disgusting ad

Lawrence O’Donnell speaks with Lt. Dan Choi & Adam Green.

Sam Seder: Herman Cain suggests war is just like delivering pizza.

Young Turks: Did Bush have CIA try to destroy Juan Cole?

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

A power substation in Redmond, WA, about 2 miles from my house, experienced an explosion and fire today.

I’ve been watching the King5 live feed.

Thick black smoke is bellowing from the site—probably a mixture of burning insulation and transformer oil. In the bad old days, transformer oil contained PCBs. Nasty stuff. But I don’t think this substation is old enough to have the rally nasty stuff on-site.

It is probably unwise to use water to fight fires at electrical substations, so they brought in a foam truck, supposedly from Seatac.

They’ve dumped a third load of foam on the fire, and it is still going strong.

Oh…the humanity!

Update: A fourth application of foam applied from multiple angles seems to be doing the trick.

Update: MyNorthwest, “Puget Sound Energy tells KIRO Radio there are about 9,000 scattered outages in the area.”

Anthony Weiner just resigned, and as you can imagine I am disappointed:

I can think of one circumstance under which Rep. Weiner should resign: he makes a pact with Sen. Vitter and they both fall on their swords (figuratively) and go away.

Yes…I’m disappointed…primarily because Sen. Vitter is still a Senator.

Seriously…Weiner inappropriately flirted electronically. Vitter broke the law when he hired a prostitute, and broke his marriage vows when he fucked her. And he broke his mother’s heart when he wore diapers for foreplay.

And I’m disappointed because…well, we have lost our distraction. Weinergate was fun, with its rich raw material for double entendres. It’s hard to resist. It brought out the 14-year old in all of us. (Okay…maybe not all of us, but a lot of us.)

The scandal even emboldened those normally sexually repressed and anal retentive tweeters, bloggers, and media talking heads, who were suddenly given license to unleash upon their audience jokes and banter of a prurient nature that rivaled the most salacious tweets from Rep. Weiner.

Except that it was okay for them to do that because…well, it’s in the news, and his name is Weiner. And everyone else is doing it.

So now, I suppose, we will have to go back to talking about serious issues, like clawing our way out of this stubborn recession brought to us by eight disastrous years of George W. Bush. We’ll have to grapple with an enormous debt caused almost entirely by the Bush tax cuts and Bush’s reckless failure to fund his Most Excellent Military Adventures. And we now have to start asking whether Republican obstructionism in fixing the economic mess they created puts them in league with al Qaeda.

See why Weinergate was such a nice distraction?

So let’s go at it one more time…for old time sake. Let’s get some major Weiner distraction going in the comment thread….

The Seattle Chapter of Drinking liberally meets tonight, and there are a few topics likely to be raised over a pint: The Washington state gubernatorial race, Ron Sims’ return to Seattle (running for Gov?), the tunnel-ish vote, last night’s Republican debate, today’s Wisconsin Supreme Court decision, and today’s Prop. 8 ruling in California.

So please join us tonight for drinks, conversation, and even dinner at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but a few folks show up around 7:00 pm for dinner.

Can’t make it? Drinking Liberally—Tacoma meets on Thursday, June 16th, 7:00pm at the Hub Restaurant.

Special Event:

Next week, our meeting will be moved from Tuesday to Wednesday (June 22) for a special Drinking Liberally with Living Liberally co-founder Justin Krebs.

Justin is on his “538 Ways to Live, Work and Play Like a Liberal” book tour.

Bring your copy of the book for Justin to sign. Copies of the book will be available for purchase at the event. We’ll meet at the usual spot.

Dear Reagan Dunn,

What a bold move you’ve made in blacklisting The Stranger from your AG campaign press releases. Is it a coincidence that Rob McKenna is also passing over The Stranger? Or is this a recent addition to the Washington State Republican Party platform?

I couldn’t help but notice that The Stranger was blacklisted after their recent acquisition of a certain potty-mouthed, muckraking, filthy, blogging asset from HorsesAss.

Just so you know, since Goldy’s departure, we gone to great lengths to clean up our act. We’ve not uncovered even a single Republican beating up his Mother, we’ve not exposed even one lethal mix of cronyism and incompetence in a top federal agency, we’ve eschewed asking pointed questions about potential brain damage in members of your caucus, and we have made (mild) jokes about Rep. Anthony Weiner.

Why, just recently we rebranded the blog:

The New HorsesAss…Same great flavor, 50% less “fuck.”

Besides that, at the New HorsesAss we are so totally not obsessed with the size of your enormous closets….

I think it’s clear that, of the two publications, HorsesAss is quickly overtaking The Stranger as the more palatable news source to people with language “sensitivities.” And I note we were the first media to break the news that you were running for AG.

So I was wondering…can you please send HorsesAss the press releases you used to send The Stranger?

Thanks in advance!

Darryl

Via Politico:

…Politico’s Ken Vogel has confirmed that former King County Executive Ron Sims has resigned his senior post at the federal department of Housing and Urban Development. He then wonders if it has anything to do with Monday’s decision by Gov. Chris Gregoire to retire after two terms. Sims lost to Gregoire in the 2004 Democratic primary.

An announcement of a gubernatorial bid from Jay Inslee is imminent. Would a Sims run throw a wrench into the works with the top two primary? I doubt it…we’ll still have a Democrat (probably Inslee) running against McKenna.

Could it be that Sims is really eying a congressional race in the 1st or 7th LD? My gut feeling is that Sims is much, much more interested in an executive position than a legislative position….

I watched most of the Republican debate this evening, and I’ve got to say, it is good news for Obama. He’ll win re-election.

This isn’t partisan wishful thinking on my part. I don’t make the same claim for the Inslee—McKenna race for Washington governor. I have my (very strong) preferences, but the outcome of that race is far from clear.

There isn’t much uncertainty left in the 2012 presidential race. Obama will win, absent of some sort of catastrophe.

You know, some scandal like Obama or Biden shooting a friend in the face, or outing a CIA covert agent, or firing numerous “non-compliant” U.S. attorneys, or getting busted lying about warrant-less domestic spying on Americans, or starting an illegal rendition program, or authorizing torture of prisoners, or misplacing palettes of $6.7 billion U.S. currency. Stuff like that.

I mean, that shit would absolutely sink any President’s chances at a second term…bar none (unless he is a Republican).

Here’s what I have learned from the debate. The Republican candidates (except for Ron Paul) are situated sharply to the right. Ron Paul is a Libertarian kook off in some other political dimension, with zero chance of making it through the primary, but the rest of the pack are extremists! Extremists of the teabagging ilk.

Seriously…at one point (here), a Mainstream Republican in the audience pointed out that he was feeling left out, and asked what candidates would do to take a balanced approach that would include him. Mr. Santorum started out the discussion by pointing out how he had eliminated welfare and set up the template for eliminating other entitlements, like Ryan’s proposals to end Medicade, food stamps. He then pointed out that the “Teaparty is a great backstop for America.” It came off more than a little cccccrazy and not at all inclusive of the mainstream Republican questioner. Bachmann was next and gave a slightly less crazy answer(!)—the Teabaggers R U, she said. Herman Cain started his answer pointing out that the Teabaggers are “not too negative and not too critical.”

Mmm’kay then…feel better, Mr. Mainstream Republican?

Another amusing example of candidates trying to out-crazy each other can be found in the extended exchange on NASA beginning at 7:00 here including the Newtster’s claim that “we’re not a developed country” because of NASA (8:06). What the fuck?

All of the candidates reject the TARP and auto bailouts (at 5:28). So fuck you Detroit! Even Herman Cain, who once support TARP, explains his flip-flop (2:10). The candidates spent most of this debate trying to out-wingnut and out-teabag each other. (Except Paul, who was just being himself—quite sensible about 40% of the time, a lunatic 40% of the time, and too incomprehensible to really tell 20% of the time.)

Everyone knows that candidates swing toward the extremes of their base during primaries and bounce back to the center during the general election. But things are different now. The Teabaggers have dragged Republican candidates not just to the right, but to the extreme right. As they maneuver to out teabag each other, their statements and positions are captured in audio or video in an easy-to-disseminate format.

In the mean time we have Barack Obama, who will not be seriously challenged in the primary. He’s a centrist. He sold himself as a centrist in 2008, and has pretty much lived up to it (or down to it if you are significantly to the left of Obama). He has a solid grip on the center, and he will sit there like a rock through the primary season while the Republicans joust over who is the teabaggiest of them all. The winner of the Republican primary will come out looking like Paul Ryan on Oxycontin wielding the mighty Loofah of conservatism, and will to battle his/her way back to the center, where Obama will be firmly entrenched.

A hope for the Republican might have been to adopt the Bush 2004 strategy: “TERRORISTS, TERRORISTS, EVERYWHERE!” But, oops…Obama killed bin Laden.

He’ll win.

It has long been suspected that Gov. Christine Gregoire would decline running for third term in 2012. Several media sources are now reporting that Gregoire will make her retirement “official” at a 10:00 AM press conference today.

Gregoire’s statement clears the way for an announcement from Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA-01) that he will be running for the office. Expect an announcement soon.

Unless something really odd happens because of the top-two primary system, Fall of 2012 should bring us a choice between Inslee and State Attorney General, Rob McKenna (R).

Thom: What American has given up for the Bush tax cuts?

Patriotic millionaires have a Message to Congress: “Tax Me”.

Washington Supreme Court rules medical marijuana patients can be fired for testing positive for marijuana:

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News hates solar power?

Weiner Weird & Woeful Week:

• Maddow points out Santorum’s discordant positions on Weiner and Ensign.
• Ed: Can Weiner survive?
• Ann Telnaes: Weiner’s lies.
• Young Turk: Should Weiner resign?
• Second City: Plausible Deniability
• Jon Stewart’s Press Conference
• Bill Maher and Jane Lynch give dramatic reading of Weiner’s dirty messages (via Political Carnival):
• Sam Seder: Media becomes blind to all but Weinergate
• Newsy: Congress runs from twitter and Weiner scandal.
• Maddow: The post-Bill Clinton modern American political sex-scandal Consequence-o-Meter.
• Young Turks: Why do men cyber cheat?

Thom: Republicans hold U.S. and world economy ransom.

Mark Fiore: Dogboy and Mr. Dan tackle the debt ceiling.

Herman Cain:

• Ed: Anti-gay psychotalk from Herman Cain.
• Herman Cain on gays, guns and abortion
• Young Turks: Anti-Muslim comments on Glenn Beck by Herman Cain.
• Sam Seder: Herman Cain wants bills to be smaller than half a pizza.

Rep. Jay Inslee (D-WA-01) leads discussion on Northwest biofuels.

Thom: Is Jon Steward single-handedly bringing down FAUX News?

Patriotic millionaires for America.

Palin around with Craaaaaazzzzzy!!

• Ann Telnaes: Palin’s free ride
• Sarah Palin’s totally home moves from her totally-not-a-campaign tour (via Slog).
• Sam Seder: “Darn tootin’ I was right about Paul Revere!”
• Young Turks: are Palin and Bachmann at war?
• Newsy: Crowdsourcing Sarah.

Politico: Norm Coleman’s (R-MN) ping-pong diplomacy.

White House: West Wing Week.

Jobs:

• Young Turks: Rep. Paul Broun (R-GA) suggests government employees should “find a real job”
• Thom: Working for the government IS a real job.
• Ed: Some psychotalk from Rep. Paul Broun.
• Young Turks: Walmart allows unions…outside of U.S.
• Jon: One Nation, Overdrawn (via OneGoodMove).
• Cenk: Where are the jobs BILLS, Republicans?

Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) on new doppler radar system.

Cenk: Is Rep. Vern Buchanan (R-FL) corrupt?

Thom: The vast Sesame Street conspiracy.

Rob McKenna announces:

Young Turks: Alabama’s draconian new immigration law.

Sam Seder: Rush pwned by caller on taxes, stimulus or oxy.

Newtany

• Young Turks: Newt in a world of trouble.
• Newsy: Staff calls it quits.

Pap: America’s new service society.

Young Turks: MA Rep. thinks crimes against illegal immigrants is okay.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Saying no to Norquist.

Maddow with Cenk: GOP now going after privatization of Social Security?

Thom: Kids say the darnedest things (about Bush and Cheney).

Mittens:

• Lawrence O’Donnell: Jennifer Granholm on Mitt Romney eating his own and flip-floping.
• Young Turks: Rush attacks Mittens over global warming.
• Welcome to Detroit Mitt Romney.
• Not the homecoming he expected.
• Young Turks: Mittens gay rights dodge.

Stephen: The Word — Hear no evil.

Young Turks: Rush mocks Cenk, the postmortem.

ONN: Antigay Senator’s horse affair caught on tape.

Bill Maher and Jane Lynch give dramatic reading of Weiner’s dirty messages (via Political Carnival).

Young Turks: Guilliani for 2012—irrelevant.

Thom: So…who’s pushing Granny over the cliff?

Maddow: Anti-choice nut-jobs shoots self in foot re: contraception.

Pawlenty Cuts Self:

• Cenk: Pawlenty’s disastrous economic “plan”
• Newsy: Pawlenty’s “bold” economic plan

Santorum wants constitutional amendment to ban gay marriage.

Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.

Stranger reporter David Goldstein, a.k.a. Goldy, provides more details on the incident last night at McKenna’s campaign kicker in which Goldy was blocked from attending the post speech press conference.

The campaign was specifically targeting The Stranger for exclusion, as the publication did not receive an invitation…and they essentially told Goldy as much. McKenna’s campaign communications coordinator Adam Faber told Goldy that “he wasn’t invited” and he couldn’t get in. Nevertheless, Goldy observed that Erik Smith, the right-wing whack-job who writes for Washington State Wire “also lacked campaign-approved credentials, but Reagan Dunn personally ushered him in.” So…it wasn’t that Goldy showed up uninvited (as did Smith)…it was that Goldy and The Stranger are specifically blacklisted.

Here is the audio Goldy captured beginning a few seconds into the conversation:

[audio:http://www.thestranger.com/images/blogimages/2011/06/09/1307655150-faber.mp3]

Goldy muses:

It’s an odd idea that candidates for public office (let alone an open government champion) should get to pick and choose which professional journalists get to attend their press conferences—and yes, that paycheck I get from The Stranger makes me a professional journalist, so suck it up. Granted, I haven’t exactly written glowing prose about McKenna, but politics is a tough business, and besides, it’s not like denying me access is going to stop me from writing.

An interesting irony in this exchange comes at about 1:50:

Goldy: And I could have been at the Tom Skerritt happy hour this evening…

Faber: Well…he looked great on that cover you had the other day.

Huh…So Adam Faber, the communications coordinator, reads (or at a minimum checks out the cover of) The Stranger—the publication his campaign has blacklisted?!?

What a bunch of hypocritical assholes!

There are warning signs here. The McKenna campaign, right out of the starting gate, is engaging in thuggery. “Open government champion,” my ass. This feel a hell of a lot like the tactics of Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker….