Sugar’s sweet (and bipartisan) subsidy.

The Handshake Heard around the Wingnutosphere:

• Jon: A fucking handshake?
• David Pakman: Obama shakes hand with Castro—EVERYBODY PANIC!!!
• Young Turks: Obama shakes Raul Castro’s hand…heads explode.

Top 10 races for 2014:

• #10.
• #9.
• #7.
• #6.

The Republican’s 12 Days of Congress.

Stephen: Walmart and college graduates.

Mark Fiore: I’m an internet company, I’m the government.

The Baby Bargain:

• Young Turks: We have a deal.
• O’Donnell: Poor Paul Ryan.
• Cillizza: How the budget deadline is like “Seinfeld”.
• Thom: Is the budget deal really an austerity budget?
• Young Turks: Who is the big winner from the budget deal? The Pentagon, of course.
• Sam Seder: People are the big losers.
• Jon and John in a bargain shouting match.
• Pap and Ed: Bipartisan budget deal is a disaster.
• Young Turks: Cat fight between Paul Ryan and Marco Rubio.

Absurdity Today: This BAD SANTA leaves lumps of coal in your lung instead of your stocking..

Young Turks: Plane crash launches new Birfer conspiracy theories.

Ask the White House: Immigration Reform.

David Pakman: Mostly White people show up at Rand Paul’s event for Black people.

Remembering Mandela:

• Obama remembers Nelson Mandela:
• Sharpton: Why are U.S. Republicans & FAUX compelled to smear Nelson Mandela?
• Maddow: Racist right-wing Republican America rejects Mandela’s hero status.
• Ann Telnaes: Our changing views of Mandela.
• David Pakman: ‘Fake’ sign language interpreter at Mandela memorial hallucinated
• Sam Seder: Fake interpreter story gets even weirder

An inside look at the Washington Governor’s mansion.

WA bar owner will sue state if patrons not allowed to smoke cannabis in members only room.

Mental Floss: 26 interesting facts about beer.

Holiday tour of the Washington Governor’s Mansion.

The rap spoof video that pisses off Karl Rove.

The politics of landing Boeing.

Cillizza: The gun bill loophole you need to know about.

Ann Telnaes: McCain compares Obama to Chamberlain.

More Skirmishes in the War on the War on Christmas™:

• Megyn Kelly claims Santa AND Jesus are White (via Crooks and Liars).
• Young Turks: Megyn Kelly is dreaming of a White, White Christmas
• Sam Seder: Don’t worry kids, Jesus and Santa are White!!
• Jon on FOX’s War on Christmas: Shit’s Getting Weird edition (via Crooks and Liars).
• Chris Hayes: Santa should not be a White man anymore.
• Stephen: Bill-O the Clown’s .
• Lonely Night: A holiday song
• News from the War on Christmas.
• David Pakman: Gretchen Carlson flips out over Festivus pole.
• Stephen: Florida’s Festivus pole.

Chris Christie’s bridge scandal explained.

Yes…the bipartisan campaign that rocked Washington.

Young Turks: Satan is causing trouble in Oklahoma.

Maddow: Senate Republicans engage in 4 days of obstructionism:

Stephen: Huckabee’s 12 days of ObamaCare (via Crooks and Liars).

This Week in the Republican War on Women™:

• The Republicans are at it again: Michigan passes “rape Insurance” bill.
• David Pakman: MI women must purchase separate “rape insurance” for access to abortion services.
• Young Turks: Michigan G.O.P. passes draconian “rape insurance” bill.
• Sam Seder: Republican law requires women to purchase rape insurance.
• Cillizza: Michigan passes controversial abortion bill
• Rush Limbaugh’s guide to sexually harassing women (via Crooks and Liars).
• Sam Seder: Daily Caller writer Patrick Howley, “There’s a silent majority of women who want to be ogled.”

Sharpton: The Republican Grinches who are stealing Christmas.

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Elian Gonzalez grows up…and Cenk tells an AWESOME story.

Pap and Sam Seder: The unrelenting war on the poor.

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

UW President Michael Young just got a raise to $570,000 . But, under his hiring agreement, he would receive an additional million in “deferred compensation” if he stays through 2016.

Presumably, all this compensation is based on Young’s “fitness” to serve the lofty role as a University President. In creating that contract, the Board of Regents inherently expressed a belief that Young has the temperament, wisdom, and values to lead the state’s premier institution of higher learning—to serve as the state’s intellectual commander-in-chief, if you will.

But given his recent public statement, it’s a façade. Rather than serving as a thoughtful steward of our state’s intellectual life, he has succumb to FOX News style truth-is-whatever-makes-me-feel-redeemed punditry.

And that makes him an embezzler—after millions of our tax dollars.

I know, I know, that doesn’t sound like he is an embezzler in the classic sense. I mean, it’s not like he is actually stealing money he isn’t entitled to. And, granted, he really does have a contract for his salary. But hear me out….

You see, I used to believe that accuracy and truthfulness in describing things like “embezzler” were an important part of being a writer, thinker, and all-around good citizen. But, I’ve recently learned that intellectual honesty isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. I’ve learned that sometimes it is okay to be incendiary to get people’s attention.

Where did I learn how to avoid being encumbered by truth? Why…from President Young, himself!

Last week, Young claimed that Washington State’s Guaranteed Education Tuition (GET) plan is “a strange program—a Ponzi scheme, essentially.” (ST link).

The statement is entirely inaccurate. GET is nothing at all like a Ponzi scheme. Calling it a Ponzi scheme defies the actual definition of a Ponzi scheme.

Such a statement coming from the U.W. President is absolutely stunning! Is it now okay for a University President to, essentially, lie to the citizens of the state. Is it moral for Young to belittle 150,000 families by suggesting they have invested in “vaporware” for their children that is really just the opposite (i.e. guaranteed)? Is it right for a University President to besmirch a functioning program that is the only sure financial path to a college education for many middle class Washington families?

Through a spokesperson we learn that Young’s use of “Ponzi scheme” is “a handy quip to explain what he perceives as the financial fragility of the GET program.”

The Seattle Times’ columnist Danny Westneat takes Young to task over his misleading words:

“No, GET is not like a Ponzi scheme, not at all,” said state Treasurer Jim McIntire, when I asked him about Young’s comment. “I would hope that what was going on here is that he misspoke.”

GET, or Guaranteed Education Tuition, is factually not like a Ponzi scheme, except in the most superficial ways. For starters, it’s an open book. Last month it got an “A” risk rating from the state actuary. It has $2.5 billion invested, in federal bonds and equity funds, that last year returned a healthy 16 percent.

Westneat’s “most superficial way” is, essentially, that there is investment and, therefore, risk—you know, like any insurance program, any retirement plan, loans, layaway, venture capital, real estate purchases, or even just investing in a college education. They’re all fuckin Ponzi schemes because someone is taking some kind of risk. Hell…by this definition even Young invested in a Ponzi scheme when he agreed to deferred compensation, because there is some chance he will not last until 2016. Man…what a gullible bozo to fall for that old Ponzi scheme!

But to be fair, we should hear Young’s side of the story. Westneat to the rescue:

“It’s incendiary, I admit,” Young said when I called him. “But this can be a real go-along to get-along community. You have to be a little incendiary around here to get people’s attention.”

Young said the GET program, because it’s a defined-benefit plan (it pledges to pay no matter what happens to the investments), is a ticking time bomb. He compared it to Detroit going bankrupt in part due to its crippling defined-benefit pensions.

“It’s 100 percent predictable that this is going to go south,” Young said. “It might be fine now, but let’s have this conversation six years from now. It’s going to need an infusion of capital to prop it up.”

That’s not what the state actuary predicts. But I can’t say who’s right.

I see…it’s because Detroit. Nevermind that there are 20,000 cities in the U.S. and the vast majority have not been crippled by defined-benefits pensions. There is a reason that Detroit went bankrupt, and the root cause isn’t the pension obligations!

So, that’s why I can say he is an embezzler. Not because he has stolen any money. He’s fine right now but, hey, let’s have this conversation two years from now. I’m just sayin’. And, it’s okay to be “just sayin’” in an incendiary way, because I’m just trying to get people’s attention. Think of it as a handy quip to point out the fragile position that Young put himself and the University in.

Thanks to President Young, truth be damned, we can all behave like FOX News pundits!

Please join us this evening for some politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.

Can’t make it tonight? Check out another Washington state DL over the next week.

The Tri-Cities, Bellingham, and Vancouver, WA chapters also meet this evening. On Thursday the Bremerton chapter meets. The Centralia chapter meets on Friday. And next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

With 212 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

Cillizza: Obama speech looks past policy to legacy.

Ann Telnaes: Boehner thinks the House is working hard.

Where hate and love come together: Westboro Mingle:

Sam Seder: Gov. Scott Walker (R-WI) “This Christmas give the gift of me to your children.

Remembering Nelson Mandela:

• Obama: Nelson Mandela.
• O’Donnell: “I am prepared to die” to beat down racism
• Nelson Mandela dies at 95.
• Maddow: The only time Pres. Obama met Mandela in Washington
• A young girl meets Mandela.
• Young Turks: What the right wing thinks of Nelson Mandela.
• Cliff Schecter and Sam Seder: American right wing’s hatred of Nelson Mandela.
• How Obama lives Mandela’s message.
• Remembering Mandela: “It always seems impossible until it is done.”
• Young Turks: Santorum compares apartheid to Obamacare
• Sam Seder: Right wing clowns on Mandela’s passing.
• Sharpton: GOP racists distorting Nelson Mandela’s work and legacy
• Maddow: Racism under apartheid.

Moment of Clarity: Fracking, wooden tables.

An anthem for the end of Hannukah.

Ann Telnaes: Cardinal Dolan thinks gay marriage is about marketing.

Jon: Minimum wage debate.

American Moment: On climate change.

G.O.P. Autopsy, Obstruction, Lying and Denial:

• Stephen: About the do-nothing Congress.
• David Pakman: Boehner caught hyping another false ObamaCare ‘horror story’.
• Young Turks: Republicans get “sensitivity training” to learn how to talk about women.
• Republican priorities one, two and three.
• Kimmel: Why this Congress is unproductive
• Sharpton: GOP Lies (Repeal!, Death Panels!, Impeach!, Benghazi!, Bengazi!, OdumboCare!, etc!)
• Cillizza: Can the G.O.P. win over Black voters?
• David Pakman: CA G.O.P. sends people to fake health exchange web site.:
• Robert Reich: Three truths the G.O.P. denies about the Affordable Care Act.
• Matt Binder: FAUX News claims ObamaCare is worse than Iraq war and hurricane Katrina.
• Young Turks: Why the right wing is freaking out over ObamaCare.
• Chris Hayes: ObamaCare—It’s all over for the G.O.P. but the LYING and baby-slanders!
• Sam Seder: With ObamaCare numbers surging, what is left for the G.O.P.?
• David Pakman: Right wing spends $10 million to keep people uninsured
• Matt Binder: G.O.P. thanks Rosa Parks for “ending racism”
• Chris Hayes: RNC “Rosa Park tweet” points to how pathologically racist the G.O.P. still is!
• Sharpton: GOP lie–that ObamaCare is a job killer–is debunked.

Kimmel: Is George W. Bush losing it?

Random Rush: “ObamaCare is forcing people to get divorced!!!!!!

Rob Ford…The Movie.

Young Turks: Driving while Black…with a White girl.

Nia-Malika Henderson: Women left behind in the economic recovery.

Drone Nation:

• Mark Fiore: Drones come to Techopolis.
• Ann Telnaes: When drones drop in.
• Dennis Trainor, Jr.: The drone that takes out Julian Assange
• Ed and Pap: Amazon drones are an inevitable disaster.
• Anna Kasparian: The Drones are coming.
• Sam Seder: Amazon drones are a B.S. publicity stunt.

Stephen interviews Denver Post’s pot editor.

Daily Show: Why the media is ignoring Wall Street scandal.

Rep Jim McDermott (D-WA-07) explains ObamaCare and why it’s so important.

Thom: ALEC’s 2014 extreme agenda exposed.

Moment of Clarity: Why you are a slave.

Pope Commie!

• Stephen has a theory about the Pope.
• Sam Seder: Right wingers go after the Pope.
• Chris Hayes: Rush Limbaugh, “Pope Francis is making Obama have Multiple Orgasms” (Part I).
• Chris Hayes: Rush Limbaugh, “Pope Francis is making Obama have Multiple Orgasms” (Part II).

White House: West Wing Week.

Sam Seder: Bill-O the Clown defends us against the War on Christmas.

Mental Floss: 30 game changing video games.

Roy Zimmerman: Notes from the road

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

Please join us this evening for a round of political prognostication over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.

Can’t make it tonight? Check out another Washington state DL over the next week.

The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight, and every Tuesday night. The Lakewood chapter meets this Wednesday. For Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet. And on Friday, the Enumclaw chapter meets.

With 212 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

Zina Saunders: Factory farm super bugs.

Pap: wealthy CEOs fighting retirement benefits.

The lost SNL audition tapes.

Obama: Immigration reform.

The Horrors of Affordable Health Care for Everyone:

• The biggest threat to ObamaCare.
• Nia-Malika Henderson: ObamaCare’s silver lining.
• Sharpton: Increasingly positive ObamaCare news vexes FAUX News and G.O.P. haters.
• Ann Telnaes: ObamaCare and religious exemptions.
• Ed: Obamacare success stories continue to hurt the Republican hate playbook.
• This is ObamaCare: Working for America.
• David Pakman: Why do Republicans have Obamacare amnesia?
• Maddow show: The tarnished Heritage Foundation and OromneyCare

Chris Hayes: FAUX News’ racist ‘Knock-Out Game’ fear mongering & stereotyping.

Dennis Trainor, Jr: Going postal to save the post office.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Palin’s & O’Reilly’s sorry explanation of Obama’s “socialism”.

The Seattle divestment forum.

Maddow: Billionaires’ bad day as new rules rein in nonprofits (via Crooks and Liars).

Thom: Will Republican treason take down Obama?

Holy Economics:

• Ed: Pope Francis rejects G.O.P. greed, cruelty & Reagan’s “trickle-down economics”.
• Young Turks: Pope Francis goes off on capitalism.
• Sharpton: Pope slams the “idolatry of money” as the G.O.P. uses “faith” to justify cruelty.

The Rob Ford calendar.

Red State Update: Podcast 54.

Young Turks: Domestic oil production up 50% under Obama.

Pap: McDonalds offers financial advice for underpaid employees.

Georgia court lists “slave” as possible occupation on website.

This Week in the Republican War on Women™:

• Zina Saunders: G.O.P. abortion siege:
• Dennis Trainor, Jr: Don’t mess with the lady parts of Texas women.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: Birth control wars….Are for-profit U.S. corporations ‘religious people? ‘
• Sharpton: Sen. McConnell lies about his hopeless record on “fairness for women”.

White House: West Wing Week.

Greenman: Rhymes with Smokey Joe.

Thom and Pap: The Media’s war on Obama.

Obama: The economy.

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

Republican anarchists didn’t like everything about the shutdown they forced last October. No…it wasn’t the fact that important things like food and aviation safety programs were put on hold. It wasn’t that poor people were going hungry or that “essential” government employees were working but not receiving their paychecks. It wasn’t that untold numbers of applications, hearings, meetings, consultations, and enforcement actions were delayed, sometimes causing damage beyond repair. It wasn’t that scientific research and medical trials were being harmed (sometimes irreparably). It wasn’t that the taxpayers paid for, and lost two, weeks of productivity from millions of government employees.

It wasn’t the $24 billion in damage they caused to the U.S. economy. Oh, well.

Nope…it wasn’t about any of that. It was because…Veterans. And national parks.

“Why were veterans turned away from the Vietnam Veterans Memorial?” House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa, R-Calif., asked Wednesday….

“Why were members of the Americans’ finest generation in their 80s and 90s turned away and told they could not visit what would be undoubtedly in many cases their last time at those monuments?” Issa asked. “Why were private businesses and nonprofits operating near park land shuttered?”

Because YOU SHUT DOWN THE GOVERNMENT, you stupid fuck!

Republicans were caught unawares. And then, even with their best efforts, they were unsuccessful in shifting the blame of their own obstructionism to the Black guy in the White House.

What to do for the next government shutdown that could happen again after January 15th? Plan ahead!

The Provide Access and Retain Continuity (PARC) Act, which has 17 Republican co-sponsors, would allow states to keep national parks operating in the event of another shutdown and would make them eligible for reimbursement by the federal government. (During the shutdown, six states entered into a similar agreement.)

That’s right…Republicans are now planning for their own failure to govern. “Screw all the other negative consequences…we want our shutdowns to be less politically painful.”

Bruce Sheaffer, Comptroller of the National Park Service, isn’t having it. He delivered a solid smackdown to G.O.P. obstructionists:

We have a great deal of sympathy for the businesses and communities that experienced a disruption of activity and loss of revenue during last month’s government shutdown and that stand to lose more if there is another funding lapse in the future. However, rather than only protecting certain narrow sectors of the economy…from the effects of a government shutdown in the future, Congress should protect all sectors of the economy by enacting appropriations on time, so as to avoid any future shutdowns.

[…]

[Planning for failure] “is not a responsible alternative to simply making the political commitment to provide appropriations for all the vital functions the federal government performs.”

In other words…DO YOUR DAMN JOB!

Fucking assholes.

Happy Thanksgiving and/or Chanukkah. Here are some links to hold you through the day….

A Thanksgiving Message from Gary Oldman:

Jonathan Mann: Some Thanksgiving Thoughts.

Pardon Me?

• White House: The Turkey Pardon.
• Presidential Thanksgiving pardons.
• Young Turks: Obama pardons some turkey.

How To: Make the perfect turkey.

National Menorah illuminates Washington D.C.

Thanksgiving poll: Did we steal America.

Ann Telnaes: What would a turkey choose?

Mental Floss: 25 little known facts about Thanksgiving:

Sam Seder and Janeane Garofalo Offer Tips for Thanksgiving:

• The three types of annoying relatives.
• Surviving Thanksgiving with the archetype Republican.
• Dealing with the 47% believer.
• Surviving the FAUX News obsessed relative.
• Surviving the “Jews for Jesus” aunt.
• The Teabagger.
• The conservative uncle.
• The “independent”
• The fake liberal
• The libertarian techie nephew
• Republicans who believe they are entitled to their own facts.
• Coming out as a progressive at your conservative family’s holiday dinner

Sharpton: Biggest political turkeys of the year.

ONN: FAA Issues Holiday Reminder That Planes Can Crash And Kill You.

Mark Fiore: Peace Turkey.

Young Turks: Ready to argue politics at Thanksgiving.

Special “thanks” from American Family Voices.

STILL THE BEST THANKSGIVING CLIP EVAR!!!: The Thanksgiving Massacre!:

British people explain Thanksgiving.

Ann Telnaes: Black Friday Thursday.

Don’t be caught off guard when Uncle Ernie unloads about Obama’s death panels and the U.N. coming for his guns. Please join us for an evening of politics and a pint at this evening’s Thanksgiving warm-up edition of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.

Can’t make it tonight? Check out another Washington state DL over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter meets tonight and every Tuesday night. The Bellingham and Burien chapters meet on Wednesday. And next Monday, the Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 212 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

So…the Vice President walks into a sub shop.

Cheney on Cheney:

• Sam Seder: Cheney attacks Cheney; Cheney loses
• Ann Telnaes: Gay marriage and the Cheney family.
• Young Turks: Liz Cheney v. Mary Cheney.

Lawrence O’Donnell with Bill Maher: North American politics:

Young Turks: FAUX News Freaks out over Oprah race comments.

Bashir: Why Sarah Palin is a ‘a racist, world-class idiot’.

The “Constitutional Option”:

• O’Donnell: Unprecedented G.O.P. obstructionism forces Senate Dems to “go nuclear”
• Chris Hayes: Enough is ENOUGH!
• The Senate goes nuclear.
• Jon: The “Nuclear Option” Is kind of a dumb nickname
• Maddow: GOP obstruction sparks nuclear reaction.
• Chris Cillizza The nuclear fall-out
• Sharpton: Right wing media’s lunatic reactions to U.S. Senate’s ‘nuclear option’ vote
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: Democrats detonate the filibuster nuke. Who wins?
• Young Turks: Going nuclear.

Sarah Silverman on first meeting Obama.

Young Turks: The Obama “one nation under God” fake controversy.

“Walmart Poor:”

• Stephen: Walmart’s employee food drive.
• Young Turks: Walmart food drive for poverty-level employees.
• Sam Seder: Walmart holding food drive for employees.
• Thom: We are subsidizing low wage employers.

Sam Seder: Caller humiliates Rush Limbaugh.

Ann Telnaes: Selfies we’d like to see.

The Audacity of Affordable Health Care for Everyone:

• Sharpton: Republicans map out waves of “malicious attacks” over ObamaCare
• Bill Maher with some new rules for ObamaCare haters.
• Fallon: Obama apologizes for health care roll-out and other things.
• Ann Telnaes: Tiny Cruz Care
• Obamacare: or herpes.
• Mark Fiore: A message from Health Insurers of America.
• Michael Brooks and Cliff Schecter: The conservative parts of Obamacare are the problem.
• Ari Melber: Three reasons why ‘ObamaCare’ is working!

Stephen: On Russia’s gay Olympics ban.

Hundreds of gallons of highly radioactive waste leaking into groundwater at Hanford.

Bashir: U TX Young Republican’s totally no-racist Catch-An-Illegal-Immigrant ‘Game’.

Fifty Years Ago, A Tragedy:

• President Obama on President Kennedy’s legacy and the American Spirit:
• Robert F. Kennedy: JFK’s Legacy Pt I
• Robert F. Kennedy: JFK’s Legacy Pt II
• Robert F. Kennedy: JFK’s Legacy Pt III
• Robert F. Kennedy: JFK’s Legacy Pt IV
• A nation remembers JFK.
• Sam Seder and Cliff Schecter: JFK’s legacy and the remaining questions.

ONN: News of the Week.

Christie’s Governors: The extreme class of 2014.

The News to the North:

• Ron Burgundy sings Rob Ford’s campaign theme song.
• Rob Ford’s wife responds….
• Daily Show tries to answer the question: Who is still supporting Rob Ford?!
• Rob Ford runs and plows down councilwoman.

Stephen: Oklahetera!

White House: West Wing Week.

Maddow: Right wing abandons facts to bash Obama:

Congressman Coke Hypocrite (R-FL)

• Young Turks: Don’t mix coke with a vote to drug test welfare recipients
• Sharpton: What ‘cocaine-Republican’ Trey Radel’s drug bust can teach us.
• Jon: Rep. Trey Radel (R-FL) drug hypocrisy.
• Hip Hop crazy congressman’s coke problem.

Ed: How Ohio Republicans are planning to rig the 2014 vote.

Maddow: Marriage equality spreads.

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

It’s time to let out your inner Socialist! Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint at tonight’s gathering of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another nearby DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Shelton chapters meet. The South Seattle chapter meets this Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.

With 212 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

So…the President walks into this bar…

Michael Brooks: The fraud, Chris Christie.

So…’sup in Canada?

• Jon: Rob Ford is like a one man episode of Cops.
• Young Turks: Rob Ford stuns crowd with comment about oral sex

The GOP: Not fresh, not new:

Mental Floss: 24 untended scientific discoveries.

Thom: The real web of economic life.

Audience laughs as Sen. Ted Cruz claims he didn’t want a shutdown (via Crooks and Liars).

Is Bitcoin coming to a campaign near you?

The Tragedy of Affordable Health Care for All:

• Jon: Healthcare.gov fiasco has turned Obama administration into ‘This Is Spinal Tap’
• Totally Biased: Colorado’s weird ObamaCare ad
• Sam Seder: Congresswoman’s demented outrage at equal healthcare coverage for women.
• Chris Hayes: The only way out is through (via Crooks and Liars).
• Rep. Ellison: “I actually believe the President didn’t mislead the public”
• Best late night ObamaCare jokes
• Stephen wants in on Obamacare.
• The numbers behind ObamaCare
• Ann Telnaes: Our health care system is not the best in the world.
• Young Turks: ObamaCare web site model was bullied.
• Sam Seder: Serial plagiarist Rand Paul fears that Obama is after his doughnuts!!!!
• Jon on FAUX News’ Medical ‘A’ Team.
• Ann Telnaes: Sarah Palin talks health care.

Red State Update: Episode 52, The Fat Elephant in the Room.

Chris Hayes: Shrub and Jews for Jesus.

Young Turks: Koch brothers’ corruption on steroids.

Kshama Sawant goes national (via Slog).

Mark Fiore: Right-Winglandia.

Bill Maher with some new rules (via Crooks and Liars).

Minority Report:

• Young Turks: Gun ownership and racism linked in new study
• Elon James White: People who are wrong on the internet:
• Totally Biased: Anything to say to a black guy.
• Young Turks: White Supremacist gets a surprise
• Mitt Romney one year later: “My campaign fell short in attracting minority voters”.
• Stephen defends “totally not racist” Richard Cohen.
• Young Turks: Washington Post writer’s racist rants
• Daily Show: Racist or Not Racist?
• Young Turks: Politician pretends to be black to win election

Sam Seder: Gun rights group terrorizes mothers advocating for gun safety.

White House: West Wing Week.

Ed and Pap: The Rick Scott $1.4 billion fraud.

Young Turks: Trolls Invade AMA of Seattle Pastor Mark Driscoll.

Ann Telnaes: Our perpetual state of war.

Michael Brooks and Cliff Schecter: The Democratic Party’s future is progressive.

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

Wow. This evening’s King County ballet drop has just made Seattle City Council Position 2 race much more interesting!

Socialist Kshama Sawant has just taken the lead over the formerly unbeatable Richard Conlin. The current tally is 79,751 votes (49.91%) for Sawant to 79,710 votes (49.88%) for Conlin. That’s a 14 41 vote edge for Sawant.

We still have some way to go (14 more days) until the election results must be certified by King County. If I am reading the spreadsheet correctly, 26,878 (or about 14.4%) of the ballots remain to be counted in this race. The trend has favored Sawant in the later ballots.

“First they came with a statue, and I said nothing….“

A week after the election, we still have a few nail-biters in Seatac, Seattle and Virginia. So please join us tonight for an evening of electoral prognostication over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our normal starting time is 8:00pm.

Initiatives….

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week.

Tonight there are meetings of the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday the Bremerton chapter meets. And next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

With 211 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

Almost a week has passed since the general election. One of the more interesting set of races was in Virginia, in which the Governor and Lieutenant Governor positions were won by Democrats, and the Attorney General race was narrowly in favor of the Republican Mark Obenshain over Democrat Mark Herring. Since last Tuesday, precincts across the state have been correcting their counts. As of this morning, Obenshain was up by a mere 17 votes out of some 2.2 million votes tallied.

Over the past few days, discrepancies, including a missing tally from an entire machine, have come to light in the Democratic stronghold of Richmond. A couple of hours ago, a hearing was held by the Richmond electoral board to clarify those discrepant or suspicious results in eight precincts. The rather dramatic review of those eight precincts netted Herring a total of 132 votes, giving the Democrat a lead of 115 votes.

The Republicans immediately demanded a review of ten more precincts. The request was granted, and those are being examined as I write this post. But, the first five precincts examined so far have resulted in exactly zero changes—they keep their election day tallies. I note that the Richmond electoral board is composed of two Republicans and one Democrat, so it will be hard for Republicans to concoct rational conspiracy theories around the hearings (as if “rational” has ever been a criterion!).

Of course we are still a long way from having this resolved. The loser will almost certainly request a recount, although N in Seattle tells me that the Virginia recounts rules are far more restrictive than what we are used to here in Washington. And then there will be the inevitable lawsuit a la the first Gregoire–Rossi race in Washington or the Franken–Coleman race in Minnesota.

The other likely set of changes to the vote count will come from about 500 outstanding provisional ballots. Most outstanding provisionals will come from blue-leaning areas—the great majority from Fairfax County, and a handful from Roanoke city. These will be adjudicated through tomorrow afternoon, when the final tallies must be certified. It is always dicey projecting provisional ballots, but we should expect Herring to pick up at least a thin majority of the provisional votes that are accepted. (BTW: there was a flap over the weekend about “rule changes” in who could represent provisional voters. The flap turns out to be pretty much bogus.)

So it looks damn likely that Democrats will have swept the three statewide races in Virginia. Given that the current Virginia Attorney General and failed gubernatorial candidate, Ken Cuccinelli, was openly boasting about being the first AG to sue the federal government over ObamaCare, his gubernatorial loss combined with the loss of the Republican in the AG slot would be a stunning symbolic victory!
[Read more…]