Please join us tonight for some pre-Thanksgiving turkey talk and political prognostication over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. The starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks show up before that for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. On Wednesday, the Bellingham and Burien chapters meet. And next Monday, the Yakima and South Bellevue chapters meet.

There are 202 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon and three in Idaho, so chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about pets.

Sam Seder: Tommy Chong smokes FAUX News.

Executive Action:

• Obama speaks on immigration action:

  
  

• Annotated: Boehner’s message before the President’s immigration speech
• Young Turks: Self-righteous FAUX hosts OUTRAGED when Obama quotes the Bible.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: How John Lennon affected our immigration laws.
• Sam Seder with Greisa Martinez: Obama’s historic move on immigration.
• Ann Telnaes: The emperor Obama has no clothes.
• Young Turks: Republican extremist practically begs for violence over Obama’s action
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: Obama takes action on immigration, Republicans go crazy
• Chris Hayes: Nutbag Republican suggests Obama could face jail time over immigration actions.
• David Pakman: Many Republicans used executive action on immigration, only Obama should be impeached
• Young Turks: Obama goes it alone on immigration reform.
• Thom: Latinos threaten GOP with “Political Hell”
• Young Turks: Wingdings explain how Obama’s immigration policy is just like Hitler.

Matt Binder: The KKK does some “rebranding”.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Why the 2014 election spells disaster for Republicans in 2016.

Stephen: Assholes for Freedom.

Sam Seder and Dahlia Lithwick: What’s ruining the Supreme Court.

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News politicizes ISIS beheading.

WaPo: Sentenced to death without all the evidence.

David Pakman: Libertarian “champion” Rand Paul helps kill NSA reform bill.

Lawmaker asks about a moat for the White House.

Sam Seder: Bill-O-The-Clown kicks off the 2014 War On Christmas Season for FAUX News.

Political Keystone:

• Mark Fiore: Sustainable Keystone XL.
• Ann Telnaes: Keystone XL pipeline isn’t about jobs.
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: The Politics behind the Keystone XL rejection
• Jon pokes Dems for cynical Keystone ploy
• Thom: Politifact left the house without their pants.

Olbermann: Bill-O the Clown is BACK as Worst Person in the World!

Sam Seder: The funniest public service ad ever.

Puppet Nation: U.S. News of the Week:

White House: West Wing Week.

Lewis Black breaks down FAUX News’ relationship with Black Friday.

David Pakman: Court rejects challenge to contraception rules.

Stephen does Jon.

Chris Hayes: More deceptive FAUX News propaganda.

Neutrality Confusion:

• Young Turks: Ted Cruz’s worst nightmare is Al Franken explaining the internet.
• Farron Cousins: Ted Cruz is absolutely clueless on Net Neutrality.

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

Mental Floss: 62 last name meanings.

Maddow: What we want and who we elected to do it.

Jon: Who is Jonathan Gruber?

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

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

There have now been something like seven major investigations into BENGHAAAAAAAZZZZZZZZIIIIIIII!!!!!!!!1!11!!!

Today the GOP-controlled House “Intelligence” Committee released the results of their two year investigation into the “Worse-than-9-11” events. They did so without fanfare on a weekend that almost assures Americans will be preoccupied with anything but the report.

Here is a recap of findings. The committee found that

…the CIA and the military acted properly in responding to the 2012 attack on a U.S. diplomatic compound in Benghazi, Libya, and asserted no wrongdoing by Obama administration appointees.

…[T]he investigation … determined that there was no intelligence failure, no delay in sending a CIA rescue team, no missed opportunity for a military rescue, and no evidence the CIA was covertly shipping arms from Libya to Syria.

In the immediate aftermath of the attack, intelligence about who carried it out and why was contradictory, the report found. That led Susan Rice, then U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, to inaccurately assert that the attack had evolved from a protest, when in fact there had been no protest. But it was intelligence analysts, not political appointees, who made the wrong call, the committee found. The report did not conclude that Rice or any other government official acted in bad faith or intentionally misled the American people.

There were a lot of crazy assholes spewing some bizarre theories about a lot of non-things.

And there was just plain lying…like the claim, easily debunked, that Obama never referred to the the incident as terrorism FOR 14 DAYS. Nope…he did the morning after in the Rose Garden and twice more in Colorado over the next two days. This line of Wingding bullshit bit them back is their own ass when presidential wannabe Mitt Romney made an ass of himself during a debate with Obama (priceless video). (Most non-crazy people wondered what difference it made whether it was called or not called “terrorism”, but I digress….)

Not one of the Benghazi theories have panned out for the Wingnuts. Yet, this should have been self-evident after the first investigation. And verified after the second, and double verified after the third….

By, say, the third report, the Republican wack-jobs still spewing BENGHAAAAZZZZZZIIIII!!!!1!1!! were just lying.

Or they are pitifully stupid and totally incapable of ordinary things like reading, evaluating evidence, and synthesis. The first few reviews were supposed to make that easy for them.

Or they’re just fucking crazy.

It’s tough to tell the difference with this bunch.

Please join us tonight for some political punditry and populist pontification over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. The starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks show up before that for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Shelton chapters also meet. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Tacoma chapter meets.

With 202 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon and three in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

Jon: The retirements of Shrub and Jimmy.

Climate Change and Pseudo-controversy:

• Young Turks: US & China unite against global warming…and the GOP promises to ruin it.
• Sam Seder and Ben Adler: Why the U.S.—China climate deal is a game changer
• David Pakman: US & China reach climate deal.
• Thom: Prof. Michael Mann on historic climate deal.
• Sam Seder: “Climate change is a hoax!,” cries Nutbagger Inhofe, incoming Chair of Senate Environment Committee!!!
• Young Turks: Obama makes it rain for climate change victims

Young Turks: Nobody showed up for the media Ebola orgy.

Chris Hayes: Outrageous FBI letter to Martin Luther King: “KILL yourself”:

SlateTV: How a crossword puzzle is created.

John Oliver: State Lotteries.

Election Aftermath:

• Mark Fiore: The Screw You Strategy.
• Seth Meyers: Emails from Obama
• Young Turks: The quiet movement that’s saving democracy is about to explode
• Sam Seder and David Bender: The Congressional takeover Of Republican fanatics.
• Matt Binder: Lowest voter turnout since WWII
• Young Turks: Senator finds out the hard way that voters don’t like cowards.

John Oliver returns to the Daily Show to interview Jon.

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

White House: West Wing Week.

Chris Hayes: KKK is ready for ‘war’ in Ferguson .

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about technology.

Stephen: Outraged at only two million?!?

Latest Health Care Pseudo-controversy:

• Sam Seder: Angus King smacks down FAUX & Fiends for not wanting people to have health insurance.
• Stephen: About GruberGate.
• Young Turks: ‘Americans are too stupid for ObamaCare’ scandal is dumb Republican nonsense
• WaPo: Gruber’s controversial Obamacare comments explained.
• Sam Seder: What Jonathan Gruber is ACTUALLY saying about ObamaCare

Thom: George W. Bush killed Seattle resident Tomas Young.

PSA: It’s on Us…Don’t be a bystander.

Jon: List of innocent things black people do that look suspicious.

Young Turks: Undeniable proof that the media isn’t liberal, at all.

Maddow: Arizona votes to nullify federal law…and biology textbooks.

David Pakman: Veterans troll Sarah Palin on Veteran’s Day.

Thom: More Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Puppet Nation: U.S.A News of the week.

Net Nude Trail It Tea:

• Funny or Die: Porn stars explain net neutrality.
• Thom politically corrects FAUX News Spokesidiot Andrew Napolitano
• Maddow: Net neutrality the next politicized policy
• Matt Binder: GOP Nutjob Ted Cruz is fighting against a free and open internet
• Sam Seder: Alex Jones’ insane net neutrality / Nazi meltdown
• Ann Telnaes: The high cost of losing net neutrality.
• Thom: Conservatives lie about net neutrality for big bucks

Jon explains his style of activism.

Pap: Bush’s real legacy—The 5th Circuit Court.

David Pakman: Democrats, NOT Republicans, are the party of freedom & liberty.

Maddow: Conservative media creates parallel universe:

On the Rhodes: An Update from Burma.

Michelle Obama’s greatest video hits.

Political Jesus:

• Thom: Would conservatives nail Jesus to a cross today?
• Young Turks: Would Jesus love or hate Republicans.

Batman: Republican or Democrat?

Stephen: Breitbart’s “corrected” story.

Mental Floss: 25 things you might not know about Harry Potter.

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

Please join us tonight for a Veteran’s Day gathering of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. The starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to show up earlier to watch election returns.

Can’t make it to Seattle? Check out one of the other Washington state chapters of Drinking Liberally that meets over the next week. The Tri-Cities, Redmond, and Vancouver, WA chapters also meet on Tuesday. On Wednesday, the Bellingham and Spokane chapters meet. The Bremerton chapter meets on Thursday. And next Monday, the Aberdeen and Olympia chapters meet.

With 202 chapters of Living Liberally, including seventeen in Washington state, three in Oregon and three in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

Sam Seder: FAUX News contributor Ben Stein claims, “Obama is the Most Racist President in American History!”

Funny or Die: Republican Bruce Springsteen.

Sam Seder: FAUX News contributor pastor claims Starbucks puts semen in their coffee.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about pregnancy.

Pot legalization: Which states are next?

What Election?

• Mark Fiore: The last campaign ad ever
• Jon: Who the fuck are you people?
• Young Turks: Guns, balls, and other crazy shit from the 2014 election
• Obama meets with Congressional leaders.
• Maddow: Compromise unlikely after GOP anti-Obama wins
• Ann Telnaes: Americans will be the ones squealing.
• Sam Seder: Liberal policies win big
• Young Turks: Nutjob new OK Sen. elect packs just one book for new job….
• David Pakman: Alaska & Oregon vote to legalize marijuana.
• Thom: Democrats were duped by the Caucus Room Conspiracy
• Farron Cousins: Midterm losses a teachable moment for progressives
• Jon: a shared message of horseshit
• David Allison: Billionaire for Idaho
• Liberal Viewer: Election wins show drug reform will sweep the nation.
• Sam Seder: The worst of the worst of the midterm elections.
• Jon interviews Chairman of RNC, and discusses his erection
• David Pakman: San Francisco votes in $15 minimum wage
• James Rustad: The Midterm Election Debacle Song
• Represent.us: First anti-corruption act in US history passes
• David Pakman: The GOOD of the 2014 election
• Young Turks: Science denier will be running Science Committee
• WaPo: The voters that fueled the “Republican wave”.
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: How Democrats fucked up.
• David Pakman: 100% of newly elected Republican Senators campaigned on repealing ObamaCare
• Maddow: Obama calls GOP bluff on Ebola, ISIS.

• Sharpton goes upside down over election results
• CSPAN: Republican caller warns Republicans to not overreach, and that “the Republicans hate that nigger Obama.”
• Thom: The fatal flaw with democracy.
• Jon: The chickenshit gambit.
• Chris Cillizza: The three Senate races that surprised The Fix.

Barack Obama: Lame duck or cool duck?

Sam Seder and Cliff Schechter: #PointerGate!

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Crazy shit actual U.S. Senators believe.

Jimmy Kimmel: This week in Unnecessary Censorship.

Political Climate Change:

• Stephen: Calling out “I’m not a Scientist” Republicans.
• Alex Wagner: Jim Inhofe, rabid climate denier, to head Senate climate committee
• Greenman: What history tells us about sea level rise.
• Thom: Stark warnings from UN on climate change

Jon says NBC is confused for going to him about “Meet the Press”.

David Pakman: Boehner hires two lawyers to sue Obama…they both quit.

Maddow: AZ town censors biology…gives textbook an abortion.

Sam Seder: Does Jeb Bush seriously think he’ll become President?

Mental Floss: 23 money tips for any occasion.

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

I’m not sure if Goldy will be liveblogging tonight, so I’ll start a thread with sequel possibilities.

Hey! There’s an election going on. So far, not terrible for Democrats. Leave your observations in the comment thread.

Having lived in Pennsylvania for a decade I am personally quite pleased to see the Republican incumbent go down in ballots.

6:27: Food’s here. Good time for a break….

6:39: Next I’m hoping Wisconsin does what PA does. Walker (R) has the lead with 5% in, but the first 5% are very different than the last 5% of precincts reporting in Wisconsin.

6:41: Kansas! Kansas! Kansas! Kansas!

6:47: “U.S. Rep. Steve Southerland (R-Fla.) lost his reelection bid to Democrat Gwen Graham in Florida’s 2nd District Tuesday.” HuffPo

6:50: Looks like Portland residents won’t have to visit Vancouver for their recreational indulgences….

7:04: Maine! Maine! Maine!

7:06: Roughly one hour until the WA SOS will have some results for us.

7:08: Goldy has entered the house.

7:18: In my estimation, Democrats are still somewhat outperforming expectations. But the expectations have been so negative for the past month, that isn’t saying much.

7:20: Mark Udall goes down in Colorado. Darryl, “Yeah…his supporters are too stoned to bother voting.” Lee, “Nope…Udall hurt himself by not connecting with young voters in any way, including not getting behind legalization.”

7:24: Upon seeing that Cory Booker was re-elected Goldy quips, “President Booker wins!”

7:40: Boooooo. Scott Walker wins his THIRD gubernatorial election in FOUR years.

7:47: Rhode Island elects its first female Governor. And she is a Democrat.

7:54: Jeanne Shaheen is the project winner in NH. Playgirl model Scott Brown (R-MA) refuses to concede.

8:00: Kansas goes red. Boooooooo! The amazing thing is that Kansas was in play in the first place. So I’m grateful for the money diverted to Kansas from other states.

8:13: Early returns have I-584 winning in every county reporting except Walla Walla.

8:16: Oddly, I-581 is also losing in Walla Walla.

8:20: King County is thrown into the mix, and I-594 is up and I-591 is down.

8:22: My Representative, Suzan DelBene (D) is up 54% to 46%.

8:24: Looks like pseudo-Democrat Sen. Rodney Fucking Tom will be replaced by real Democrat Cyrus Habib in WA-48.

8:29: 57% in favor legalization on our southern border.

8:32: The U.S. Senate goes red. Okay…maybe tonight was as bad as the projections.

8:34: On the other hand, overreach by a rabidly Republican Senate can lead to more victories for Dems in 2016 when election results can have far greater consequences.

8:45: I mention to Goldy that Joni Ernst (R-IA) seems like she could be the most batshit crazy of the new crop of GOP Senators. Listening to her victory speech, Goldy quips, “She is the new Michele Bachmann.”

8:49 Kitzhaber survives!

8:50: If there is any question that I-591 was maliciously designed to confuse voters, consider this: Clallam, Mason, Pierce, Clark, Spokane and Asotin all voted YES on both I-591 and I-594. Q.E.D.

9:16: Washington saves face: Teabagger Clint Diddier loses to moderate Republican Dan Newhouse. This is “Doc” Hasting’s seat, so the Washington state congressional delegation likely got a whole lot more respectable.

9:30: What can you expect voters to do when we have a President that leaves us with dropping gas prices, led us out of the Bush Recession and brought us down to low unemployment, reduced combat deaths in Afghanistan to ZERO last month, and has provided the safety net of health insurance for 9.5 an additional Americans. I, for one, blame Obama.

9:43: Connecticut gubernatorial race has Tom Foley (R) 359,272 to Dan Malloy (D) 358,518.

9:53:

You know, 4 out of the last 5 MA governors were Republican. So I'm having trouble seeing how Baker's victory is meaningful.

— Goldy (@GoldyHA) November 5, 2014

10:02:

GOPers may be winning the Senate, but in the cities where most Americans live, min wage, pot legalization, and preschool are winning the day

— Goldy (@GoldyHA) November 5, 2014

10:04: As a person who grew up in, and still has family in, Wisconsin, I was feeling sorry for all my fellow Wisconsinites. Then I realized who the real victims of tonight’s Walker victory are: The 2016 G.O.P. presidential field.

It’s election day! Get that ballot in, and then join us for an evening of conversation, drinks, and election returns at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. The starting time is 8:00 pm, but feel free to show up earlier to watch election returns.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter meets. The Lakewood chapter meets on Wednesday. On Thursday, the Tacoma chapter meets. And the Enumclaw chapter meets on Friday.

With 201 chapters of Living Liberally, including seventeen in Washington state, three in Oregon and three in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

A new PPP poll, conducted on behalf of the Center for American Progress Action Fund, provides a preview of how some ballot measures will do tomorrow night.

For the most part, the poll reinforces what we saw in the recent Washington Poll. There is one interesting difference between the Washington Poll and the new PPP poll. The Washington Poll was taken Oct 17-24, so mostly prior to the 24 Oct Marysville-Pilchuck high school shooting. The PPP poll surveyed 636 likely voters from 30 Oct to 1 Nov, after the shooting.

How did the gun initiatives do? Initiative 594, that would close the background check loopholes, gets 59% support in favor and 38% against, with 3% unsure. This is a small drop in support from the WA Poll’s 64% Yes to 36% No. We can expect it to win handily.

Initiative 591, that would prohibit the state from imposing background checks, is losing 41% in favor to 52% against and 8% not sure. Compare that to the WA Poll’s 42.6% Yes and 45.7% No. That spread has more than doubled from three points to seven. Of course, this could be sampling error, different polling methods, etc. in addition to or instead of an actual change since the shooting. But this poll certainly suggests that I-591 will very likely lose on Tuesday.

The primary reason I-591 is on the ballot is to confuse voters. It directly competes with I-594 yet the numbers in the WA Poll suggest that a chunk of voters were saying YES to both measures–that is, some voters are confused.. Perhaps it is wishful thinking, but the increased opposition to I-591 in the PPP poll may reflect voters being more informed about both measures.

Daily Show: The Latinos are already here!

James Rustad: Christie likes to bully all the time:

Liberal Viewer: Fox News Worst Softball Questions to Gov Chris Christie on Bridgegate Scandal.

David Pakman: Drudge Report, “Coldest year on record”. Reality, “Warmest year on record”.

Dave Rubin: Why YOU should vote.

Mental Floss: 26 not so scary facts about Halloween.

Guns & Schools:

• Sam Seder: Another school shooting and no gun sanity in sight.
• Puppet Nation: Country of lost children.

Obama: Women and the economy.

David Pakman: Mitt Romney’s epic bitter rant about Obama.

Pap: The hidden dangers of fracking.

Stephen is just as concerned about about the new citizenship law as FAUX News.

Ann Telnaes: Sit down and shut up, Governor!

David Pakman: “Free” voter ID cost money.

Amy Poehler explains economic inequality with cartoon alpacas.

Jon on Texas NOT turning blue.

Ebola Politics:

• WaPo: Politician fueling ebola fears.
• Puppet Nation: Safety in numbers
• Ann Telnaes: Ready, aim, EBOLA!
• Sam Seder: Right wing lunatics fan the “ebola hysteria” flames
• Maddow: Fear-driven governors make Ebola policy mess
• Young Turks: CDC scores big with Americans on ebola
• Jon: Ebola (or meat) fever?
• Puppet Nation: Christie on ebola

• Judge rules nurse Kaci Hickox free leave house whenever she pleases
• Sam Seder: Ebola insanity continues

Red State Update: United States of Talladega.

Stephen admits he was wrong about Canadians.

Sam Seder: Chris Christie tries to weasel out of his ugly minimum wage statement.

Debates: what were they thinking?

Koch Klown Kandidates: Minimum Wage.

Thom: The 2014 voting nightmare.

Puppet Nation: Twenty Mitteen:

Jon: About those Koch brothers….

White House: West Wing Week.

Stephen announces the end of the Report.

Young Turks: Scott Walker hopes women are really dumb.

Gamergate:

• Mark Fiore: Gamergate wants you!
• Jonathan Mann: Stop Making Us Look Bad.
• Jonathan Mann: It’s About Ethics in Journalism

Stephen beams in George Takei to save the midterms from indifference.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Rush wants Chris Christie quarantined.

Koch Brothers go after Social Security.

Thom and Brad Friedman: So how common is vote-flipping?

Richard Fowler: Cigarette smoke is so bad that Cigarette manufacturer bans it in the workplace.

David Pakman: Gas prices are astonishing low…rightwingers are silent.

Sam Seder: Nutburger Rep. Louie Gohmert knows a lot about gay massages.

Election spending by the numbers.

Thom: What has greed cost America.

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

The Washington Poll is an infrequent, but high quality, poll of Washington state races and issues. A new Washington Poll is out, just this evening.

The poll was sponsored by KCTS-9 and developed and directed by Prof. Matt A. Barreto at the University of Washington. The poll was in the field from Oct 17-24, and had 600 respondents.

Here are some of the highlights.

Initiative 594 (Closing the gun background check loophole)

Overall the initiative has much more support than not. If we include leaners, statewide, I-594 is up 64% Yes to 36% No, with 5.2% not saying. That is a pretty impressive lead.

We shouldn’t be surprised that, in the Puget Sound region, it is up with 73.1% in favor. But what is surprising is that I-594 is up by 56.2% in Eastern Washington, and leads 48.2% Yes to 40.9% No in the rest of the state.

This initiative will pass.

Initiative 591 (Prohibiting Washington state from adopting background check standards)

This one looks remarkably close! Statewide, the initiative is ahead 45.4% Yes to 43.4% No, but with 8.8% undecided.

Supporters of I-594 claim (and some other folks, like Chris Vance) that I-591 was put on the ballot to confuse voters, and it seems to have done so. That is the only reasonable interpretation of the fact that in the Puget Sound region, I-591 is nearly tied at 42.6% in favor and 45.7% against. That is irreconcilable with the Puget Sound I-594 results. With these numbers, it is certain that some people are voting YES on BOTH initiatives, something that makes no logical sense.

Initiative 1351 (Defining K12 class size goals )

This initiative will pass easily with 60.6% support to 31.6% against and 7.9% not saying. This initiative does equally well in all parts of the state.

Here are a few other selected questions:

How would you prefer to see the legislature attempt to reduce the state of Washingtons budget deficit?

The question is misleading, since the state doesn’t really have a budget deficit. But the question gives us a sense of how willing voters are to be taxed.

The top statewide response was (drum roll please): At 29.6%, the top choice was “divided equally between spending cuts and tax increases.”

The next most common response with “spending cuts only” at 22.7% and “mostly with spending cuts” at 22.5%. The answer “mostly tax increases only” got 12.3% support. Overall, almost 77% are willing to have their taxes increased at least a little to better the state’s financial situation.

The entire premise of Sen. Rodney Tom’s Republican coup was that previous initiative outcomes offered him the insight that voters did not want any tax increases.

It seems he was wrong. (Perhaps they simply want the legislature to have the gonads to pass the tax increases rather than making people vote to tax themselves directly.)

Do you agree or disagree with the creation of a state income tax on wealthy households?

Huh…48.3% in favor, 42.0% against. Maybe it is time for another go at an initiative?

Which party do you trust more to make the right decisions and improve economic conditions in Washington state?

Democrats come out on top statewide at 40.9% to 35.2% for Republicans.

Do you agree or disagree that the state legislature should provide more funding to education?

The people are channeling the state Supreme Court: 76.1% agree statewide, and the issue is ahead in all three regions.

Gay and lesbian couples should have the same legal right to marry as straight couples

In Eastern Washington, 60% agree, and the numbers go higher from there.

Undocumented immigrants should be allowed to remain in the U.S. and eventually
become citizens

All regions of the state agree with this by at least 69%!

A proposal that would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour in Washington
state

Statewide, the issue is tied with 48.2% in favor and 47.8% against.

That is just a smattering of the 61 tables in the top-lines for this poll.

Have you mailed your ballot yet? It’s about that time. With a week to go before the election, maybe tonight would be a good night to join the conversation and down a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Roanoke Park Place Tavern, 2409 10th Ave E, Seattle. The starting time is 8:00 pm, but some folks show up before that for dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter meets. On Wednesday, the Bellingham and Burien chapters meet. The Woodinville chapter meets on Thursday. And next Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 201 chapters of Living Liberally, including seventeen in Washington state, three in Oregon and three in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting somewhere near you.

The gun lobby lap dogs of Congress.

Young Turks: Obamacare’s worst nightmare hilariously coming true for Republicans.

Chris Hayes: Mr. President, “Don’t touch my girlfriend!”:

Thom: Fukushima radiation on the West Coast.

A Nation Is (Still)Born

• Michael Brooks: South should secede soon & form the nation of “Reagan”.
• Young Turks: The nation of Reagan

There’s help: creepy British child syndrome.

Mental Floss: 29 dumb facts about deserts.

Young Turks: Young hot women should date, not vote, says FAUX News.

Sam Seder: George Carlin finally gets his “way”.

John Oliver: Translators.

White House: West Wing Week.

Political Ebola:

• Obama: What you need to know about ebola.
• Mark Fiore: Ebola Buddy.
• An Ebola update from Dr. Anthony Fauci of the NIH
• Young Turks: Ebola fear mongering goes viral in the U.S..
• WaPo :How the CDC trains workers to combat Ebola
• David Pakman: Right wing nutbags push meme that liberals believe Americans should die from ebola
• Matt Binder: Ebola overreaction reaches new high in US.
• Michael Brooks: Ted Cruz is unbelievably dishonest.
• Young Turks: Good ebola news as Nurse is now ebola-free.
• David Pakman: Ebola panic gets Maine teacher suspended for simply visiting Nigeria Liberia Texas
• Ann Telnaes: Republican fearmongering.
• Calming ebola fears.
• Young Turks: Obama’s and Bush’s Czar.
• David Pakman: Louie Gohmert has bad case of Teabola!

Chris Hayes and Howard Dean: Vermont’s funniest gubernatorial debate moments.

Debate crowd laughs at carpetbagger Scott Brown (via Crooks and Liars).

ONN exclusive: A one-on-one interview with GOD.

Alex Wagner: Four Blackwater guards who murdered 17 civilians are convicted.

David Pakman: Louie Gohmert discusses gay massages to argue against gays in the military.

Young Turks: His-Panic.

The Republican War on Low Wage Workers:

• Sam Seder: Chris Christie reveals his disdain for low wage employees.
• Ann Telnaes: Chris Christie is tired of all the minimum wage talk.
• David Pakman: FAUX “Business” trashes people who want a living wage
• Richard Fowler: Scott Walker things minimum wage serves no purpose
• Young Turks: Raising the minimum wage could save billions annually
• Sam Seder: Chris Christie is really tired of hearing about the minimum wage.

Mark Halperin critiques Joni Ernst’s “closing” ad (with hogs) (via Crooks and Liars).

Thom: America’s lost generation.

Ed and Pap: Republicans blocking the vote at all costs.

Maddow: Alabama top Republican indicted on corruption.

Harry Shearer’s: “Nixon’s The One”.

Young Turks: Bill-O-the-Clown explains votes for Democrats.

The Asshats of Alaska:

• Sam Seder: Police releases audio of booze-fueled Palin family brawl
• Young Turks: Sarah Palin’s PAC is a scam
• Unapologetic, Rep. Don Young blames government dependence for youth suicide (via Crooks and Liars).
• Sam Seder: Did Congressman Don Young (R-AK) once killed a guy?!?

Maddow: Late ‘churn’ in voting rules sows confusion.

Sam Seder: How bad is GOP Governor Paul LePage.

Alex Wagner: Ted CRUZ goes totally wacko over marriage equality.

Mental Floss: Misconceptions about food.

James Rustad: #StopTheGOP theme song:

Ed, Pap, and Joy: A voter’s guide to telling when Rick Scott is lying.

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

This falls more under the category of bizarre amusement than actual controversy, but in the Republican–on–Republican battle in Washington’s 4th Congressional District, something weird happened. And I don’t simply mean the existence of Clint Didier as a possible future Congressman from Washington state. No…this weirdly amusing thing comes from a “PAC backed by former Republican U.S. Sen. Slade Gorton” that produced this ad against Didier:

Didier: “Get your ham radio. Get it in a metal box and get it buried in the ground!”

Narrator: “The more you listen, the weirder Clint Didier sounds.”

Yep. Can’t argue with that.

So…I’m a ham radio operator. And a pretty active one, at that. Some of my ham acquaintances on a list server I belong to were outraged by their perception that the ad implied that ham radio was weird.

But what is weird is Clint Didier. I don’t know the full context of the quote, but putting a ham radio in a metal box and burring it in the ground doesn’t make for a very good radio or for bountiful farming.

It sounds to me like Clint is some kind of wackjob prepper with a dose of paranoia, and he probably doesn’t know squat about ham radio, emergency communications, or disaster readiness.

Sure enough…a search of the FCC database reveals that Clint Didier is not a licensed amateur radio operator.

At least not under his REAL name….