The Northwest Progressive Institute (NPI) has been a strong voice in the progressive activist community in the Northwest for over seven years. One of their early projects was a set of tools for progressive bloggers that enabled them to connect, share ideas and information, and disseminate their work. In past years, they have put together a number of influential workshops that brought bloggers together and put bloggers in touch with politicians (I’ve attended a number of them). NPI has also been a strong, consistent voice against Tim “Biggest Lie of my Life” Eyman’s abuse of the initiative process in Washington.

On Thursday, April 28th, NPI is holding its Spring Fundraising Gala at the Community Center at Mercer View, 82346 SE 24th Street on Mercer Island (map). The reception begins at 6:30 PM and the main program begins at 7:15 PM.

This is your chance to hang out with other folks in the progressive community over a buffet dinner. There will be music by Don Mock. Featured speakers are Rep. Jay Inslee, State Rep. Reuven Carlyle, Timothy Ford, Peter Steinbrueck, and Scott Macklin. And Bob Ferguson will be the Master of Ceremonies.

You can find information about tickets and whatnot on the NPI web page.

HA has been experiencing server difficulties for, what…two weeks now?

The ISP has pinned the blame on a rogue router. They replaced it this afternoon. So no more problems, eh?

It’s finally starting to feel like spring around here! And maybe it is just me, but it sure feels like political passions are beginning to stir among us liberals. Let’s talk about it.

Please join us tonight for an evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to join some of us for an earlier dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 222 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Sweet Jesus! You know the Wingnuts have huddled on the right-most precipice of crazy when Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer has to step in as the voice of moderation:

Calling it “a bridge too far,” Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer on Monday vetoed the state legislature’s controversial “birther bill” and also rejected a bill that would have permitted guns on college campuses.

The bill to permit guns on college campuses wasn’t so much about moderation as it was about poor authorship:

The bill would have initially allowed guns to be brought into classrooms, but was revised to limit gun possession to sidewalks and roads on campuses.

Brewer told Fox News that while she is usually a supporter of pro-gun legislation, she vetoed the bill because it “was just very poorly and sloppily written and it just was not defined in the manner of which people could interpret it or could it be enforced.”

In smacking down Teh Birfers Brewer expressed some concern…

“I never imagined being presented with a bill that could require candidates for president of the greatest and most powerful nation on earth to submit their ‘early baptismal or circumcision certificates’ among other records to the Arizona secretary of state,” she said in the letter. “This is a bridge too far.”

Huh? So Arizona lawmakers wanted the presidency limited to folks who have undergone genital mutilation and practice a subset of religions that baptize infants?

For infidels who are neither circumscribed nor baptized as infants, perhaps an original invitation to the placenta feast would work?

Well…good on Jan, although she may have ulterior motives—I just guessin’ she does not have an official Certificate of Circumcision Circumcision Certificate.

Arizona Sen. John McCain, who really wasn’t born in the United States, applauds.

But Teh Crazy is being upheld by Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal:

Gov. Bobby Jindal would sign a bill requiring presidential candidates to provide a copy of their birth certificate to qualify for the Louisiana ballot if it reaches his desk, a spokesman said Monday.

A spokesman says Gov. Bobby Jindal will sign a bill to require presidential candidates to provide a birth certificate as proof of citizenship.
“It’s not part of our package, but if the Legislature passes it we’ll sign it,” press secretary Kyle Plotkin said.

(And if the birfer legislation is part of the package, one must wonder if the candidate’s package would be part of the legislation.)

And Indiana is considering joining the Birferati:

Indiana Senator Mike Delph is seeking a summer study committee review of whether Indiana should require Presidential candidates to prove they meet the constitutional requirements of age, residency and citizenship.

(And The Donald is just getting warmed up, while awaiting the results from his investigative teams in Hawaii and Kenya.)

So…maybe not such a bad day for Birfers. In fact, it is turning out to be a downright joyous day, since a new Public Policy Polling poll of Iowa Republicans found:

There is a significant birther presence in Iowa- 48% of Republican voters say they don’t think Barack Obama was born in the United States…

I hear placenta makes an excellent pizza topping.

The Republicans are sure waging a shit-load of wars against Americans.

Consider just last week. First the House Republicans:

…approved two resolutions that would amend the FY 2011 spending bill to block funding designated for Planned Parenthood and last year’s healthcare law. But House passage is largely symbolic, as the Senate did not pass either of the bills.

After that, House Republicans passed Rep. Ryan’s budget bill that privatizes Medicare, radically cuts the federal contribution to Medicaid, creates even more tax cuts for the rich and some corporations, and repeals health care reforms. The bill is DOA in the Senate, not to mention the Oval Office. And it should be DOA to most Americans.

One half the population ought to be outraged at the Republican’s War on Women. And add to that a lot non-women folk who like to fuck without making babies. Many of these non-women appreciate that Planned Parenthood provides help with that. In other words, a big chunk of young voting-age (or almost voting-age) Americans should be repulsed by these senseless political attacks on Planned Parenthood.

It is hard to imagine that senior citizens can be big fans of higher out-of-pocket insurance costs proposed in Ryan’s Medicare privatization bill to fund tax cuts for the rich. Some Seniors must find Rep. Dave Reichert’s War on AARP a little unsettling.

The poor, the disabled? I cannot believe they enjoyed being screwed by the Republicans.

All this comes on top of prior alienation. African Americans? Pretty much lost to the G.O.P. already. Hispanics? There was a small blip in increased support in 2010, but still down about 22% on average. And union members? Yeah…like they’re going to forgive and forget the War on Workers playing out in Wisconsin, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Maine, Michigan, etc. The LGBT communities? Not really big supporters.

Republicans have lost the old, the young, the poor and disadvantaged, women, workers, and the nation’s largest minority groups. So who’s left?

Rich White Guys. That’s who.

Oh…yeah. Corporations, too.

But Republicans are not going to be voted out of office en masse. Even if a huge majority of Americans would be financially hurt by G.O.P. legislation, and even if they are morally opposed to the extremist agenda of the current crop of batshit crazy Republicans, Americans will still vote against their economic self-interest and moral principles. The Republicans will offer to rape them; they will assent.

Why? Some people are not paying attention. And other people are easily swayed. There is almost no harm that can be proposed or undertaken by Republicans that cannot be undone with enough money in the weeks leading up to an election.

Apparently Republicans have done this calculation, and they have concluded that the money infused by Rich White Guys and Wealthy Corporations over the next few elections will overcome the losses incurred by their all-out assault on most Americans.

Have they erred in their calculations?

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

Cenk: G.O.P. panic over Obama’s budget speech.

This Ain’t No Foolin’ Around:

• Charlie Crist apologizes to David Byrne for copyright infringement.
• Sam Seder: Charlie and the kitten bowl.

Cenk: Meet potential G.O.P. candidate Michelle Bachmann.

Ann Telnaes: The G.O.P.’s anti-abortion, anti-EPA riders.

Thom: TEA Final.

Mark Fiore: Little Suzie Newsykins on how to negotiate like a pro.

Sam Seder: What was in the budget bill?

Delaware House of Representatives vote in favor of same-sex civil unions.

Thom: Proof the Chamber has plans to sabotage liberals.

The Republican War on Workers:

• Maddow: Union killing.
• Scott Walker admits stripping collective bargaining rights doesn’t save any state money (via DailyKos).
• Ed: Gov. Walker’s (R-WI) dirty railroad deal:

Young Turks: New poll spells a world of trouble for Republicans.

White House: West Wing Week.

Newsy: Kids have the right to heart boobies.

Thom: The Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

ONN Radio News: FBI Chief wishes he had Alien thing to investigate.

Republican War on Women:

• Maddow: The G.O.P. lies on Planned Parenthood.
• Cenk: Republican flip flop on Planned Parenthood.
• Ann Telnaes: Budget sacrifice—the D.C. abortion rider.
• On Colbert’s “not a factual statement” takedown.

Young Turks: Conservative rips GOP on abortion, homophobia & hypocrisy.

Red State Update: Shutdown…oh, nevermind.

Thom: Election mishap in Wisconsin.

TYT Now: Jobs killing G.O.P. budget cuts.

Best House Floor “Speech” EVER?

Tweety: Santorum defends his anti-gay comments .

Birfer Trump Card:

• Jon: Investigating in Hawaii (via TalkingPointsMemo).
• Obama’s sister responds to Trump.
• Obama responds.
• Young Turks: Republican Trump poll.
• Newsy: The Donald has a great relationship with The Blacks.
• Young Turks: Bill Cosby (one of “The Blacks”) hammers The Donald.
• The Donald’s very odd interview.
• The Donald discovers he is Christian, pro-life, against gay marriage & pro death penalty

Cenk: G.O.P. flipflops over the debt.

Nutcase Governor Chris Christie urges reporters to take a bat to a 76 year old (via Crooks and Liars).

Maddow: Standing up for Medicare.

ONN Week in Review: Congress votes to cut off step son’s funding.

Friskin’ the Kiddies:

• Young Turks: TSA patting down terror children.
• Thom: The terror-babies have arrived.

Ed: why the rich get richer and poor get poorer.

Kent, WA Woman sends fake anthrax letter to Obama.

Run, Mitt, run…away from you Health Care for Everyone Law.

Reuters: Biden sleeping? (Hey…it’s not like he was working the tower at Boeing Field.)

Newsy: FAUX connects GWU student suicide to Obama’s visit.

Premature Pawlenty:

• The accidental declaration.
• Tweety: Pawlenty’s false start.
• Stephen: Tim Pawlenty lost his virginity (via DailyKos).

Ed: The Wingnuts fire back at Obama.

Young Turks: Republicans BUSTED on 72 hour rule.

Former Gov. Alan Simpson (R-WY): GOP Is anti-gay, anti-women, and pushes moral values while diddling their secretary:

Cenk: Myth of the fiscal conservative busted.

Thom with The Good, the Bad, and the Very Very Ugly.

Newsy: Fall-out from sleeping controllers.

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

Starting soon…

Here is the text. Discuss.

Please join us tonight for an evening of electoral politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to join some of us for an earlier dinner.

Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 222 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.

Today marks the 50th anniversary of manned space flight and the 30th anniversary of the first Space Shuttle launch. Among other events, NASA Administrator Charles Bolden Jr. is just announcing which museums will receive each of the five retiring Space Shuttles.

The Pacific Northwest, with its abundance of aviation museums, has two strong contenders among the 21 in the competition.

The first is, of course, the Museum of Flight at Boeing Field. I don’t need to say much about this, because if you have any interest in aviation, you’ve been there. (And if not, well…you’ve probably stopped reading.)

Another not-quite-so-well-known regional finalist is the Evergreen Aviation and Space Museum in McMinnville, Oregon. This is the place where Howard Hughes’ Spruce Goose is housed. If you like aviation museums, Evergreen is fantastic. In recent years, the museum has expanded to two main buildings, one for aviation, one for space. They are currently building a water park with an unusual water slide. Here’s a photo I recently took on a dreary March afternoon…

Bolden choked up a few times during his introductory speech. Here is the list of awardees:

• Discovery will go to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum.
• Endeavor go to California Science Center.
• Atlantis, whose last flight is in June, will go to the Kennedy Space Center.
• Enterprise, the prototype that currently at the Smithsonian Institution, will go to the Intrepid Sea, Air & Space Museum

Bummer.

This is what U.S. military spending looks like over a little more than 2 decades:

(Data soure: Stockholm International Peace Research Institute.)

So much for the Peace Dividend that followed the end of the Cold War. Apparently, fighting a rag-tag bunch of cave-dwellers requires the same level of funding as keeping up with mighty Soviet Union.

If we want a return to the glory days of a balanced federal budget–you know, like we saw during the last year of the Clinton administration, we should

1. Let the budget busting Bush tax cuts expire. The second major experiment with Trickle-Down economics proved to be an abject failure. It is time for grown-up economic principles to be used for tax policy.
2. Cut military spending to late 1990s levels. The proposed Ryan budget would, literally, cause higher death rates for the most vulnerable Americans, who would no longer be able to afford some types of health care. Quality of life would go down drastically for Seniors and people with disabilities.

   It’s immoral to allow military spending to increase far greater than inflation, and ask seniors and the disabled to pay for it with their life!

And if you believe that military spending pays us back by stimulating the economy, think again. A study by University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee political scientist Prof. Uk Heo finds:

…a 1 percent increase in the defense spending share of GDP in the United States is expected to lead to a 0.019 percent increase in economic growth over two years. This result indicates that the economic effects of defense spending on growth in the United States are meaningless because the size of the effects is virtually zero.

Military spending, at least at today’s levels, turns out to be a really, really lousy investment.

Lawrence O’Donnell lays into Rep. Tom Graves (R-GA) for being willing to shut down Government to defund Planned Parenthood (via Crooks and Liars).

Obama on the budget agreement:

Sam Seder: Bristol Palin’s big pay day from nonprofit teen pregnancy prevention charity.

Mark Fiore: Terrorist lock-up.

About Glenn Beck:

• Glenn Beck tries to explain (via Crooks and Liars).
• Jon channels Glenn (via Crooks and Liars).
• Young Turks: Why Glenn is leaving FAUX News.
• Newsy: Why Glenn Beck is transitioning off FAUX show.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Glenn Beck will shed his last tear…
• Sam Seder: Glenn Beck goes away.
• Glenn Beck gets out-crazied on his own program.
• Bill Maher on Glenn Beck (via Huffington Post).
• Young Turks: The future for Glenn.

The difference between Liberal and Conservative brains:

Obama picks Debbie Wasserman Schultz to lead the DNC.

Thom: Hate speech and free speech.

ONN: Internet outage forces public into street to voice inane opinions.

Wisconsin Election Madness:

• Young Turks: Votes found in Wisconsin.
• Maddow: Gov. Walker does his part to reelect Obama (via Politics USA).

Thom: The Good, the Bad and the Very Very Ugly.

Sam Seder: What will happen when the Government shuts down?

Maddow: Criminally phoney elections?

Pap: What Monsanto chemicals are in your food?.

The Birfer Donald:

• Ann Telnaes: An April fool.
• NBC scrambles to fact-check The Donald (via Crooks and Liars).
• Tweety: Trump converts Republican nomination into a Reality TV show.

Ann Telnaes: Afghan protests spread after Koran burning.

Cenk with Con Job: GOP budget exposed by CBO.

Newsy: Mississippi Republicans think mixed race marriages should be illegal.

White House: West Wing Week.

Rep. Jim McDermott on FAUX News discussing budget compromise:

Cenk: Why I am a progressive.

Liberal Viewer: Using R-word is totally gay?.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Last word on GOP/Teabagger holding Planned Parenthood hostage.

Wimpish Pawlenty puts out an action thriller against Obama. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr! (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Maddow: Paul Ryan & GOP attack Medicare & raise debt?

Young Turks: Walker does cronyism.

ONN week in review: Obama cast national musical.

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

Washington state capitol grounds are filled with thousands of protesters demonstrating against spending cuts and corporate tax breaks. Seattle teacher’s union vice president Jonathan Knapp estimates 8,000 demonstrators, and the the Washington State Patrol estimates 7,000 people:

The rally is the largest of four days of boisterous demonstrations in Olympia over spending cuts lawmakers are considering to help close a looming $5 billion budget deficit.

Goldy’s there and sends in this amusing photo (to his employer). Here is another photo, and another from Goldy.

Not there? You can still make your voice heard. Take a few moments to contact your state Senator and Representatives.

Seriously…with $4.4 billion more being excised from a budget that has been cut to the bone and picked over, this is going to be painful. So speak up!

I’ll take a slightly less suspicious stance than Lee on the remarkable turn-around we saw yesterday in the Wisconsin Supreme court race.

People make mistakes. All the time.

The whole idea of canvassing under the scrutiny of public observers is to figure out the intentions of every single voter, and make sure the votes are counted correctly. Shit happens…tallies change. Yesterday we learned that, because of a data entry error in a Republican-leaning county, Prosser was shorted some 7,582 votes in his contest with Kloppenburg.

Do I believe it? Yes, I do.

Seriously…I believe a whole string of innocent human errors are a far more parsimonious explanation than systematic voter fraud, lying, deceit, ballot stuffing, etc. for the plethora of vote changes that have occurred over the last two days Yeah…I believe that—even when the conservative nut-cases come out ahead—it is true until concrete evidence shows elsewise.

So…to paraphrase the words of an overrated person with senile dementia who was once was propped up as “President,” “I’ll trust, but please verify.”

And sure…the most likely outcome of this election isn’t nearly as satisfying as we thought two days ago, but it really doesn’t change what I said on Wednesday:

So, who really wins…Workers or Walker? Given the closeness of this race, it will be hard for either side to make too much over the eventual winner. That said, the expectation that a incumbent should win such a race means that a Kloppenburg win, and maybe even a very close loss, provides modest evidence that Wisconsin voters have joined with their Milwaukee county brethren to give Gov. Walker a collective thumbs down.

If one recognizes the fact that Prosser dominated with a 2:1 margin over Kloppenburg in the four-way primary, only to have that margin cut down to a slim advantage in the general election…yeah, I can find solace in that as the outcome.

All that aside, check this out:

The Brookfield bombshell was the biggest – but hardly the only – change as counties across the state checked their election results Tuesday. Here’s a sample:

• In Winnebago County, officials now say Prosser received 20,701 votes to Kloppenburg’s 18,887. On Wednesday, The Associated Press – which gathers the votes for most of the media in Wisconsin – had 19,991 for Prosser to Kloppenburg’s 18,421.
• In Kenosha, Prosser picked up 33 votes in the Town of Randall and 27 votes in the Town of Bristol, and the canvass is still going on.
• In Waukesha County, Prosser also picked up 200 votes in New Berlin after a clerical error was discovered.
• In Grant County, Prosser lost 116 votes when officials completed their canvass Thursday. The count was off in part because the Town of Smelser incorrectly reported the count for paper ballots that voters cast after the regular ballots ran out, County Clerk Linda Gebhardt said. The town reported 294 votes for Prosser, but later corrected the figure to 194.

The list of changes rolled on in county after county…

Let me ask you. If these discrepancies were reported to advantage the (perceived) Democrat, what do you s’pose would happen?

Yeah…the Wingnut spin machine would go absolutely, fucking, out-of-their-gourd bonkers! They would go on a witch hunt against anyone and everyone who made “hostile” corrections to the vote tallies. They would launch a holy crusade against Democratic stronghold counties, ACORN, Planned Parenthood, NPR, George Soros, Michael Fox, the Clintons and certain Teletubbies. We’d hear about roving bands of ballot-stuffers, mailbox dwellers, illegal alien voters, Black Panther intimidators, and Democrat-loving felons voters.

We’d hear references Dean Logan ad nauseum.

In other words, the apoplectic right-wing propagandists would do everything they could do to stir up negative emotions by undermining our system of elections. They would consider their victory so important that they would fabricate lies and hatred about our elections process. (You know…kind-of like Hitler would do.)

You ask how I can make such a claim—practically calling ’em traitors? Because that is what they did in 2004 in Washington state. And then, again, in 2008 in Minnesota. You know, like the 157 different “findings of fact” alleged by Coleman, of which, ohhh…all 157 were tossed out by the courts. The Coleman’s people (like Rossi’s) made the calculation that grasping for a win—even at the cost of damaging our democracy—was more important than truth and reality.

So I will maintain the dignified stance that this Wisconsin election is typical—clean, overall, but with a few errors along the way that can and will (rightfully) be corrected.

And the next time the Democrats squeak one out and some right-wing asshole starts trashing our Democracy and promoting doubts about our electoral system…I may have to shoot him in the fucking head.

Or her.

Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) has a little slip-o-the-tongue (via Thinkprogress):

And we all know what he means by “score a victory for the Republican people.”

Dear Rep. Pence,

“No” means NO!

Love,
America

Remember the anecdote about the college drop-out, DUI-collecting, son of a lobbyist and big donor who was appointed by Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) to head environmental and regulatory affairs in the state Department of Commerce for $81,500 a year?

He has been given a demotion in response to a “public uproar.”

But the Journal Sentinel gives the qualifications on the two other people who applied for the position that supervises 76 employees and oversees storage tank regulations and environmental cleanups:

The first, Oscar Herrera, is a former state cabinet secretary under Republican Gov. Scott McCallum with a doctoral degree and eight years’ experience overseeing the cleanup of petroleum-contaminated sites.

The second, Bernice Mattsson, is a professional engineer who served since 2003 in the post to which Deschane was appointed.

By contrast, Deschane has no college degree, little management experience and a couple of drunken-driving convictions. His father represents a trade group that gave more than $121,000 to Walker and his running mate.

Herrera and Mattsson didn’t get far in the process.

“Neither candidate was interviewed,” said agency spokesman Tony Hozeny.

Clearly, the last thing you need in such a position is someone with qualifications and experience.

And clearly, Walker considered that the single best qualification for the job was having a generous father who is a lobbyist for the Wisconsin Builders Association.

Nothing stinky here, folks. Just move along!

Okay…maybe there was some political payback, and maybe there was some conflict of interest in having the son of a Wisconsin Builders Association lobbyist overseeing regulators of storage tanks. But, whatever…I mean, demotion accomplished!

And by “demotion” we learn he will go…

…back to the Department of Regulation and Licensing and his $64,728-a-year job as bureau director of board services.

(*Sigh*)