Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.. We start at 8:00 pm, and sometimes even earlier for dinner.
Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 211 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.
I stumbled across this article today:
Woodinville’s Tourist District Roundabout Transportation Improvement Project received an engineering excellence award from the Washington State Chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies (ACEC). The award was presented to the Woodinville City Council on February 8.
The roundabout project won a gold award in the category of exceeding client/owner needs. […]
A number of other national professional engineering groups have also recognized Woodinville’s project for its innovative use of three roundabouts. […]
What drew my attention is that I use this bit of road at least several times a month. It reminded me that I been meaning to post a RANT about Washington drivers and their seeming inability to use roundabouts effectively.
Before I take up a menacing stance upon my mighty soapbox, let me first add to the praises of this project. For many years now, I have made almost weekly trips from my home in Redmond to Snohomish. I take SR 202 (or the Redmond–Woodinville road) to Woodinville and then pick up SR 9 to Snohomish. The intersection of SR 202 and Northeast 145th, was sometimes a mess. During rush hour, SR 202 used to back up for a mile or two. But even during low traffic periods, the intersection of roads at odd angles, combined with the particular traffic flows rendered an annoyingly low throughput at this intersection. According to this 2006 Seattle Times article, people have been trying to find a fix for this problem since the 1970s.
Roundabouts were the answer. Not those wimpy little traffic calming circles that one finds all over Seattle. These are real (if smallish) traffic roundabouts. About a year ago, they finished the project that consists of one main 2-lane roundabout. And there are two satellite roundabouts (see image) that, in part, serve to slow traffic down and permit a smaller main roundabout footprint.
My assessment: Fantastic! The one-way time between my house and my destination in Snohomish was reduced from 40 minutes to just under 35 minutes. Also the variance in trip time was reduced. Essentially, getting through the SR 202/NE 145th intersection is now both faster and accomplished in about the same amount of time each trip. I truly love these things.
What annoys me about roundabouts is the stupid-ass drivers who have no idea how to use them effectively. There are some simple tricks that, when everyone is in on it, makes them much more efficient. So, at the risk of being dubbed “The Traffic Nazi” by someone other than my significant other (Happy Valentines day, dear!), allow me to offer some advice to the traffic circle novice.
Whew! I’m glad I finally got that off of my chest.
(Via The Hill.)
This morning at 9:00 Seattle Mayor Mike McGinn will be Steve Scher’s guest on KUOW’s Weekday.
Be prepared to hear how much McGinn hates the deep bore tunnel, how much he hates the Seattle City Council for approving agreements with the State, how he is so totally going to veto the agreement, and how much he is going to seriously hate the City Council when they override his veto.
Oh…and happy Valentines Day.
Three days ago Joel Connelly reported it as imminent. Now King County Councilmember Bob Ferguson has announced his candidacy for Washington State Attorney General:
Bob may have some Democratic competition from former Pierce County Executive John Ladenburg. On the Republican side, it’s hard to tell. But…
[t]he King County GOP last week registered the Internet domain name “DunnForAG.com.”
That would be Reagan Dunn, son of the late Rep. Jennifer Dunn, who represented Washington’s 8th CD from 1993 to 2005. Reagan Dunn, like Bob Ferguson, currently serves on the King County Council.
No word from Richard Pope yet on whether or not he will also run….
The Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) wrapped up Saturday on its third and final day. One function of the annual conference is to allow potential Republican presidential candidates to telegraph their intentions to run, while strutting their conservative stuff to the hungry conservative masses.
And there was a lot of telegraphy (and strutting) this year. We got coded messages from Mitt Romney, Rick Santorum, Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), Gov. Mitch Daniels (R-IN), Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R-MN), Gov. Rick Perry (R-TX), Gov. Haley Barbour (R-MS), Newt Gingrich, John Thune, Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN), and The Donald Trump. There were probably others there that I’ve forgotten about.
Two CPAC no-shows, Sarah Palin and Mike Huckabee, are both expected to join competition as well. I mean, it isn’t a coincidence that Sarah Palin hired a chief of staff just today—the same person who worked for her 2008 VP campaign. She was telegraphing from a distance….
The G.O.P. 2012 primary field is still a little fuzzy as very few of these folks have actually admitted they are running.
The Democratic race is pretty clear. President Obama will run for reelection. There will be a couple of Democratic also-rans and crank candidates, but unless an authentic Kenyan long-form birth certificate is found, or someone uncovers a third grade report by Obama where he swears his allegiance to Chairman Mao, Obama is going to be the Democratic nominee.
Today a new FOX News poll does head-to-head match-ups between Obama and the top Republican (probable) candidates.
I know some readers will be dubious about a Fox News Poll. However, this one is done jointly by Anderson Robbins Research, a Democratic pollster, and Shaw & Company Research, a Republican pollster. The poll uses live interviews on a national sample of 911 registered voters from Feb 7-9. Both landlines and cell phones were included. The margin of error is 3%.
Here is a summary of answers to the question “thinking ahead to the next presidential election, if the election were held today, how would you vote if the candidates were…”
The findings for Palin, Gingrich and Jeb Bush are not overly surprising. However, Obama’s substantial lead over the two individuals who are widely considered the front runners is great news for Obama.
There was a poll released yesterday by Public Policy Polling that did head-to-head match-ups in nine swing states (defined as states that Barack Obama won in 2008 and that George Bush won in 2004. Indiana was excluded because of legal difficulties polling in the state. Nebraska CD 2 is also included because Obama won an electoral vote from there). The take-home message:
If he stood for reelection today against one of the current Republican front runners Obama would almost certainly win the same number of electoral votes he did in 2008, if not more.
Here are the numbers:
|
Obama v. |
2008 Vote |
Gingrich |
Huckabee |
Palin |
Romney |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
Colorado |
+9 |
+14 |
+9 |
+19 |
+6 |
|
Florida |
+3 |
+5 |
+5 |
+14 |
+2 |
|
Iowa |
+10 |
+13 |
+4 |
+16 |
+6 |
|
NE-2 |
+1 |
+19 |
+11 |
+24 |
+9 |
|
Nevada |
+12 |
+11 |
+10 |
+13 |
+1 |
|
New Mexico |
+15 |
+21 |
+19 |
+29 |
+16 |
|
North Carolina |
+0 |
+6 |
+4 |
+9 |
+3 |
|
Ohio |
+4 |
+6 |
+1 |
+7 |
+2 |
|
Virginia |
+6 |
+11 |
+5 |
+11 |
+5 |
Clearly, the Republicans have a lot of work to do to catch up with Obama. After two years of ceaseless smears, Obama is still going very strong. Further smears aren’t going to cut it for the Republicans.
And Obama has most of the advantages. He is the power of incumbency. He will not have a bloody primary to fight. He will not have to shift his positions between the primary and general elections. And he has a long list of accomplishments to date.
Finally…Obama should achieve higher approval ratings over the next year. Political scientists have long noted that presidential approval suffers when his party is also in control of Congress. The House takeover by the Republicans last fall means that people’s opinions of Obama’s should rise. And that has been the trend since January.
You might say that Republicans taking the House in 2010 is Obama’s ticket to an easy re-election in 2012.
Newsy: Obama proposes clean energy tax cut.
Young Turks: Teabagger Rep. wrong about stimulus bill.
Ann Telnaes: Time to look beyond oil.
Lawrence O’Donnell and Bill Maher on John Boehner, Glenn Beck, Christine O’Donnell, & Elisabeth Hasselbeck.
Mike Papantonio and Shannyn Moore discuss the importance of progressive media for an informed, intelligent democratic society.
Young Turks: FAUX News insider tells all, “just make stuff up:
Ed and Pap: The CPAC freak show.
Maddow: Are Republicans beginning to understand the real cost of war?.
Newsy: New magazine for Teabaggers.
Ann Telnaes: The G.O.P. moves to restrict abortion funding.
Cheney called “war criminal” at CPAC.
President Obama addresses the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.
Topless Takedown:
ONN Radio News: U.S. Takes out debt consolidation loan.
Newsy: O’Reilly’s Interupt-a-thon.
Ed and Pap: GOP Congress bows to Koch brother’s power.
Liberal Viewer: Colbert, cops say taser of innocent not excessive?.
Newsy: Mubarak refuses to resign despite rumors.
Sam Seder: G.O.P. meltdown over Patriot Act.
Cenk: The truth about Ronald Reagan.
Mark Fiore: Aggregation!
Egypt in Political Turmoil:
Young Turks: Conservative blogger gives more details on Nikki Haley’s affair.
Newsy: Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) to retire.
VP Joe Biden: Building a 21st century infrastructure.
ONN: Nation elects first openly drunk Senator.
Ann Telnaes: Justice Clarence Thomas’s wife forms lobbying firm.
Teabagging Troubles:
Young Turks: GOP Rep. on how being gay is deadly.
My Congressman (Rep. Jay Inslee) Inslee questions Senator Inhofe in E&C Committee hearing.
Pap: Lobbyists already control the new GOP Congressmen.
Newsy: Trump for Preznit.
Last week’s Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza can be found here.
Awww…how adorable. Birfer humor at CPAC:
Another married Republican politician is caught trolling for sex on the intertubes (via Gawker):
Rep. Christopher Lee is a married Republican congressman serving the 26th District of New York. But when he trolls Craigslist’s “Women Seeking Men” forum, he’s Christopher Lee, “divorced” “lobbyist” and “fit fun classy guy.” One object of his flirtation told us her story.
[…]By modern day standards, the conversation was relatively banal: No prostitutes, escorts, or madams were involved. Just good old fashioned lying and an apparent willingness to cheat on one’s wife.
The woman says she cut off contact when she searched for Lee online and concluded he’d lied about his age and occupation. Then she forwarded us the correspondence.
Lying, willingness to break his marriage vows…and sheer stupidity! Seriously…the dude didn’t even change his name and then sends the woman a topless photo of himself. Was he trying to create a public scandal?
Perhaps there is something about diaper fetishes that gives unfaithful Republicans the courage to not resign in the humiliation of a public scandal. But Rep. Lee is no Sen. Vitter. Rather, he’s now former Rep. Christopher John Lee.
Update: Hellooooo Carl Paladino! (Via Swing State Project.)
So, last weekend I called up Goldy to ask how the new job was going. I was, shall I say, a bit underwhelmed by the volume of Goldy bylines on Slog.
“Look…”, I said, “Paul Constant, the freaking book editor, is kicking your ass in number of posts.”
“Yeah…well there was a lot of paperwork on Wednesday…”
Then Goldy intimated that he hardly had time to post because he was working on some “longer pieces.” It sounded plausible, but I had some lingering doubts.
Perhaps getting up in the morning, getting dressed up for work (you know, putting on a pinstripe navy blue blazer and chaps), and heading to the office was really hard for Goldy—it messed up his head for writing. Or maybe he was rendered dysfunctional all afternoon because he couldn’t take his mid-day nap. Who knows.
Well my doubts have been allayed for the time being. Today’s edition of The Stranger contain a news piece by Goldy entitled “The Welfare State”:
When our state’s rural Republicans toss around pejoratives like “socialism,” “redistribution of wealth,” and “welfare state,” they’re usually hurling them at the People’s Republic of Seattle and the Democratic legislators we send to Olympia. As a commenter on the Spokane Spokesman-Review’s website recently carped: “Eastern Washington… has always been shorted/slighted where state expenditures are concerned! Nearly to the point that we don’t exist!”
[…]However, the money is not exactly moving in the direction most Eastern Washingtonians suspect.
Goldy pulls together some pieces he has blogged on over the past weeks to nail an important and under-appreciated point:
The irony here is not that those who benefit most from state spending are paying the least; that’s kinda the way these things are supposed to work. No, the irony is that those rural communities that are most dependent on the state—whose roads and schools and other essential public services couldn’t possibly be maintained without generous state subsidies—are also those least likely to vote for the tax dollars necessary to sustain these services.
So…with a 1 kiloword news piece in the print edition, I guess Goldy has done alright for week one. I’ll be generous and give him a B+.
But, geez, Goldy, for week two? At least try to keep up with the book guy.
Via TPM:
Failed GOP Senate candidate Christine O’Donnell is back, and she’s telling supporters she wants her newly formed political action committee ChristinePAC to “investigate and counter attack leftwing groups.”
O’Donnell, who wrote that her losing campaign sent “shockwaves” throughout the nation, said in an e-mail to supporters Tuesday that her group will look into the groups “funded with one million dollars or more from billionaire leftist George Soros.”
Ya know, it sounds to me like Ms. O’Donnell is on some kind of witch hunt.
Please join us tonight for an evening of politics under the influence at the Seattle chapter of Drinking Liberally. We meet at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E.. We start at 8:00 pm, and sometimes even earlier for dinner.
And now we learn the Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI), the new head of the House energy committee, denies a role for man in climate change. For tonight’s DL roundtable chat, we will ponder the question, “just how many of these stoopid fucking anti-science shit-fer-brains Wingdings are there out there, anyway?”
Not in Seattle? There is a good chance you live near one of the 211 other chapters of Drinking Liberally.
It’s a tough lesson when you attach a knife to your cock and end up getting stabbed in the calf and dying.
That’s exactly what happened to a man in California, who armed his cock…that is, his rooster, with a fighting knife.
The man had a prior conviction for “owning or training an animal for fighting.” Apparently, he didn’t learn his lesson. The rooster gave him another.
I think the more general lesson is that, in a world where karma can be a bitch, sometimes karma’s a cock.
There is something ideological amiss in this (via Seattlepi.com):
Ruling against a suit brought by the Building Industry Association of Washington, a federal judge on Monday upheld the state of Washington’s 2009 energy efficiency building code.
U.S. District Judge Robert J. Bryan rejected the BIAW’s claim that the code conflicted with federal law. The code sets energy efficiency requirements for new homes, and is designed to reduce energy use and the energy bills of Washington households.
The BIAW sued Washington over energy standards that, they claim, exceeded the Federal regulations. But shouldn’t the BIAW be suing the Feds, claiming that energy efficiency is a States’ Rights issue?
Huh…these Wingnuts are hard to figger-out sometimes.
The Convention Against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment has had the force of international law since mid-1987. The U.S. joined the club by signing it in 1988. The treaty received ratification in 1994. This treaty is, under Article VI paragraph 2 of the U.S. Constitution, the “supreme Law of the Land.”
Convention (Article 1) prohibits torture, defined as:
…any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession, punishing him for an act he or a third person has committed or is suspected of having committed, or intimidating or coercing him or a third person, or for any reason based on discrimination of any kind, when such pain or suffering is inflicted by or at the instigation of or with the consent or acquiescence of a public official or other person acting in an official capacity.
The treaty grants NO exceptions to the prohibition on Torture…not even under the “Ticking Time Bomb” scenario (from Article II):
(2) No exceptional circumstances whatsoever, whether a state of war or a threat or war, internal political instability or any other public emergency, may be invoked as a justification of torture.
One of my disappointments with the Obama administration has been a lack of prosecution for those who justified, authorized, and undertook torture. The lack of action wasn’t unexpected…just disappointing.
So we have alleged criminals living free: the “deciders” George W. Bush (who has, remarkably, confessed to authorizing waterboarding in his autobiography) and Dick Cheney, the “justifiers” like Professor John Yoo and Judge Jay Bybee, and those who actually administered torture.
There may never be domestic prosecutions of these alleged criminals, but at least for the highest profile of the alleged criminals, there is now more to fear while traveling outside the U.S. than being hit in the face with a shoe (via Reuters):
Former President George W. Bush has canceled a visit to Switzerland, where he was to address a Jewish charity gala, due to the risk of legal action against him for alleged torture, rights groups said on Saturday.
Bush was to be the keynote speaker at Keren Hayesod’s annual dinner on February 12 in Geneva. But pressure has been building on the Swiss government to arrest him and open a criminal investigation if he enters the Alpine country.
Criminal complaints against Bush alleging torture have been lodged in Geneva, court officials say.
The fact is Switzerland has no choice but to consider prosecution. As a signatory to the Convention, Switzerland is bound by Article 5:
Each State Party shall likewise take such measures as may be necessary to establish its jurisdiction over such offences in cases where the alleged offender is present in any territory under its jurisdiction and it does not extradite him pursuant to article 8 to any of the States mentioned in Paragraph 1 of this article.
So George Bush cannot travel much outside of the U.S., except, apparently, to Canada…seems like a pretty trivial punishment for committing crimes against humanity.
The punishment could be much worse. As John McCain pointed out in 2007:
…some Japanese were tried and hanged for torturing American prisoners during World War II with techniques that included waterboarding.
“There should be little doubt from American history that we consider [waterboarding] as torture otherwise we wouldn’t have tried and convicted Japanese for doing that same thing to Americans….”
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