HorsesAss.Org

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by — ,

DLBottleThe Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets tonight. Please join us for an evening of politics over a pint.

We meet every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. The Tri-Cities chapter also meets tonight. On Wednesday, the Burien and Bellingham chapters meet. On Thursday the Woodinville chapter meets.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

The GOP catch-22

by — ,

There are many reasons why Latinos tend to shy away from supporting Republicans. First, it’s because Republican politicians are constantly telegraphing to Latinos that they are second class citizens. Never mind the blatantly racist crap we get from politicians like Sheriff Joe Arpaio. There is enough subtle stuff to last a political lifetime. You know, like nutjburger Sharron Angle defending before an auditorium of Latino student, her “illegal immigrant” ads portraying Mexican individuals as sinister:

I don’t know that all of you are Latino…Some of you look a little more Asian to me. I don’t know that.

“Mexican? Were they really Mexican?!?” Uh huh. Right.

Or Rep. Don Young (R-AK) casually throwing out the term “wetbacks” in referring to immigrant workers on his father’s farm.

Latinos also have plenty of good policy reasons to shy away from Republicans. Republicans aren’t particularly good about supporting policies that serve or protect relatively disadvantaged populations of any sort. They have become the party of preserving privilege for the privileged. Sadly, they aren’t going to be able to change their policies overnight. And, even then, the image problem will lag for years behind the policy change.

It will take Republicans years to decades to repair all of this self-inflicted damage. Immigration reform is one of those policies that offer Republicans…well, not exactly opportunity. But maybe something….

Politico’s Emily Schultheis points out the catch-22 that Republicans find themselves in over immigration reform. Essentially, blocking immigration reform will further alienate them, and hinder their image reform goals (see The Autopsy). For years to come.

Alternatively, by enacting immigration reform:

The immigration proposal pending in Congress would transform the nation’s political landscape for a generation or more — pumping as many as 11 million new Hispanic voters into the electorate a decade from now in ways that, if current trends hold, would produce an electoral bonanza for Democrats and cripple Republican prospects in many states they now win easily.

Theoretically, the Republicans could get some political advantage among current Latino voters by supporting immigration reform. That’s good for them in the short run. The real problem comes 13 years down the road:

Extrapolating 2012 voting trends to the 2028 presidential election — the first in which previously undocumented Hispanics could exercise their voting rights after a 13-year path to citizenship — is an inherently speculative exercise. But it is one that highlights the political sword hanging over Republicans as they consider immigration reform with a path to citizenship, an idea that is already deeply unpopular with many red-state constituencies.

To support the measure virtually guarantees millions of new Democratic voters.

What to do? I think the only reasonable thing for Republicans is the Hail Mary Pass. Passing immigration reform now at least gives them a fighting chance to win the “hearts and minds” of Latino voters. It’s a gamble, because they would have make huge progress in “image reform” by the time year 13 arrives. And, even then, it will most likely only allow them to minimize the damage.

The alternative—further pissing off the community—comes with an immediate hit that will only be compounded by the time the 13-year Gauntlet is run.

But it will also hurt like hell in 2020, when Republicans stand to lose their lopsided advantage from the 2010 gerrymandered congressional districts. That will set Republicans back, possibly for decades.

I hope Republicans do strongly back immigration reform. Not because I want them to have a shot at redemption with Latinos. Rather, because it is the proper policy that will improve the lives of millions of people, including a great many U.S. citizens—like U.S.-born children whose parents are undocumented.

What I see as the biggest threat to the future of the Republican party is the heightened xenophobia in the wake of the Boston bombing that may end up dominating their party. It threatens to foreclose on their Hail Mary option.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

by — ,

Liberal Viewer: FAUX News trumps up bugging charge against Mother Jones.

Stephen: Oopsie Daisy Homophobe:

Thom: GOP pats Exxon on the back for Arkansas oil spill.

Young Turks: Student v. abstinence only education.

DCCC: “He lied to us”.

Katie Compa: White liberal parents.

Ann Telnaes: The Perpetual War on Terror.

Young Turks: OK Rep, “Don’t Jew me down”.

Bill Maher: War and Peace.

Torture in OUR NAMES:

Chris Hayes: Last safety inspection of West plant was in 1985.

ONN: Week in Review.

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

Bill Maher with New Rules (via Crooks and Liars).

Sam Seder: Rep. Louie Gohmert (R-TX-1) thinks Muslim terrorists are pretending to be Hispanic.

Bombing in Boston:

White House: West Wing Week.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Young Turks: Hunger strike at Gitmo.

Thom: How to create a right-wing terrorist.

Jon: Barrier method.

Ann Telnaes: Tax day.

Young Turks: What happened in Texas?

U.S. Senate Republicans Puts Guns in the Hands of Terrorists!

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

Robert Reich: Why our democracy is succeeding on social issues and failing on economic issues.

Maddow: Terrorism tools within reach of the dangerously deluded ‘patriot’ terrorists.

NASA awesome: What happens if you wring out a cloth in space?

Young Turks: Idiot Republican Rep. “Peter” Hansen calls women “vaginas”.

Slate: BSA lifts ban on Scouts, but not leaders.

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

Some words for Rodney Tom

by — ,

Anna Minard, writing at The Stranger, has words for Sen. Rodney Tom (D R–WA-48):

So I’d just like to say this, and get it out of my system, so I can stop saying your fuckstick name over and over again: FUCK YOU, RODNEY TOM.

Amen.
SadTom
I am a resident of the 48th. In 2006, I worked hard to help the recently converted Democrat defeat incumbent Sen. Luke Esser (R).

Nobody that I have supported and voted for has ever left me feeling so betrayed. Ever.

So, yeah…FUCK YOU, RODNEY TOM.

And read the rest of Ms. Minard’s measured essay here.

Boston Manhunt

by — ,

Wow…tons of news from the MA in the past 12 hours. I don’t usually do posts on news items, but this is a pretty extraordinary circumstance. I’m going to do a bit of live blogging in the short time I have available.

Please keep this comment thread on-topic of the bombing and the manhunt.

9:18: I frequently learn of breaking news quite quickly. For the Boston marathon bombings, I am among the 10% who heard the news 6 or more hours after it happened.

9:20: KUOW 94.9 FM has ongoing coverage. CNN has a livestream…but, you know, be careful what you believe (e.g.).

9:31: And for a political connection, we get some idiotic tweets from Ann Coultergeist.

9:34: Excellent current summary from Mother Jones.

9:41: I couldn’t embed the video mentioned by MikeBoyScout, but here, from another source, is the uncle of the suspects:

9:43: CNN reports that both suspects are naturalized U.S. citizens, as of September of last year.

9:46: Via SJ in the comment thread (and my correction to the link)…inside news on the location of the suspect.

10:30: I’ve heard it mentioned several times on CNN that Tamerlan Tsarnaev, the 26 year-old suspect, was killed when he was run over by his younger brother. If true (and I’ve seen this reported elsewhere), it add another bizarre twist to this bizarre-iferous set of events. But I also have to wonder if this is psyops rather than truth. I mean, could this be a ruse designed to dispirit 19 year-old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev?

11:12: The Family Research Council has figured out why tragedies like this occur (or, at least, what “compound[s] the problem”: “abortion, family breakdown, sexual liberalism, or religious hostility!” Oh,Gay Marriage, what Doom hast Thou wrought?

11:42: Dzhokhar Tsarnaev graduated from “Cambridge Rindge and Latin School, a public high school in Cambridge.” Holy shit…I think that is the same high school that HA comment thread personality (and typo-robot) SJ told me he graduated from! Now debating submitting an FBI tip….

4:56 pm: The suspect is, apparently, surrounded in a boat in someone’s backyard. This thing is likely to come to an end soon. Here is a live feed.

5:23 pm: Hmmm…it looks like Glenn Beck is working hard to become the King of the Boston Trufers: “They have until Monday and then The Blaze will expose it.” “It” being the involvement of a “Saudi national” You Go Glenn!

5:44 pm: On-site news reports are the suspect is in custody. An ambulance has arrived, presumably for the suspect.

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by — ,

DLBottlePlease join us for an evening of politics over a pint at tonight’s Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm, but people will show up earlier than that for Dinner.


Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview and South Seattle chapters meet this Wednesday. Also on Wednesday, the nation’s newest chapter, the Lakewood, Washington Drinking Liberally chapter, will meet. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet.

With 207 chapters of Living Liberally, including sixteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

Lake Stevens man was at the explosion

by — ,

I was to work very early this morning, and got home quite late. I was greeted by a thunderstorm that knocked out the internet at my house. So I only heard a bit about the Boston bombs on the radio.

One person who was slightly injured in Boston today was from the Puget Sound region. Bill Iffrig is from Lake Stevens—he is 78 years old, and was knocked down very close to where the bomb exploded. He was interviewed on ESPN:

In the interview, Bill suggests he may have seen how the bomb was disguised just before it exploded.

(H/T TPM)

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

by — ,

Ann Telnaes: Kansas abortion law.

Walmart v. Costco: How they treat their employees.

Pap: Rape in the military.

Aqua Buddha Man:

Young Turks: A 51st state?

Mark Fiore: Tar Sands Timmy.

Ann Telnaes: The two escalator economy.

Kid Grows Up?

Young Turks: State lawmaker equates Muslim prayer with terrorism.

Robert Reich: Public morality:

Lawrence O’Donnell: DREAMing for an end of legal limbo.

Guns and Violence

Sam Seder: NC legislators want an official state religion.

White House: West Wing Week.

CNN: Gabby Giffords, two years later.

Mental Floss: 50 Weird Laws:

Budget Insanity:

Maddow: Obama uses his head in giving a political lesson.

NRCC’s Buzzfeedified web site.

Red State Update: News of the week.

Obama hosts a Memphis Soul evening at the White House.

The Munchy Majority:

Sam Seder: Elizabeth Warren demolishes bank regulators for protecting banks over people.

Maddow: Virgina’s TRAP laws threaten abortion rights.

Republican FAIL.

America under water.

Smokey Joe Does Biblical Science:

Maddow: Republicans turn to (probable war criminal) Dick Cheney for advice?!?

Young Turks: Catholic League leader PWNED on gay hypocrisy.

Kimmel: This Week in Unnecessary Censorship.

Jon: Our own worst enemy.

Anthony Weiner Looks for Redemption:

Maddow: Remember when it was illegal for the CIA to assassinate? It still is.

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

Ann Telnaes: The consequences of a Republican filibuster on guns.

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

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by — ,

Yo! It’s Tuesday, which means the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets. Please join us tonight for an evening of politics over a pint.

We meet tonight and every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.




Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out plethora of other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight there are also meetings of the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets. On Thursday the Bremerton, Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet. Finally, next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

by — ,

Young Turks: Sarah Palin’s embarrassingly hypocritical PAC expenses.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Maddow: NC GOP takes war on voting to college students:

Young Turks: Weed wins.

Stephen on ‘Morning Joe’ supporting Mark Sanford.

Bill Press: Shocking statistics on poverty in America.

Young Turks: Michelle Obama, the single mom.

Sam Seder with an episode of Random Rush.

WA tries to close down private clubs that serve pot vapor.

Bearing Arms:

Young Turks: The craziest conspiracy theories believe in.

Pap on the G.O.P. autopsy.

Sharpton: The Republican War on Women is revived.

Sam Seder: Idiot conservatives think that Google honored Hugo Chavez on Easter.

Cracking up over global warming.

Maddow: Once again, GOP embarrasses the U.S. on the world stage.

Sharpton: Bestiality is “The Stupid Party’s” new obsession.

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

Lawrence O’Donnell: How wrong the G.O.P. has been on marriage equality over the years.

Young Turks: Morning-after pill restrictions thrown out by judge.

Stephen takes down Jeremy Irons.

Fox & Rice:

White House: West Wing Week.

Young Turks: Obama and the “best looking Attorney General”.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Hillary tops challengers for 2016.

Maddow: Defying extremist’s threats, clinic reopens with community support.

Jon: What is it with Republicans and animal fucking?!?

Sam Seder: Where are the female Libertarians?

Maddow: America’s other Tar Sands oil spill:

Young Turks: VA’s ‘criminalize blowjobs’ gubernatorial candidate.

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

Tonight: NPI’s Spring Fundraising Gala

by — ,

This is a reminder that tonight the Northwest Progressive Institute’s Spring Fundraising Gala will be held at the Mercer Island Community Center (8236 SE 24th Street). A reception begins at 6:30 pm and the main program is at 7:15 pm.

This year’s speakers include Rep. Suzan DelBene (D-WA-1), Sound Transit CEO Joni Earl, State Rep. Gael Tarleton (D-36), and NPI founder Andrew Villeneuve. Tickets are $60 for individuals, $90 for households, and $20 for students and “those living lightly”. Kids are free. Tickets can be purchased here or at the door.

I’ve been to these in the past, and they’re quite enjoyable!

Today in the Republican Party Makeover

by — ,

The Republican Party 2012 Autopsy that goes by the name Growth and Opportunity Project is a couple of weeks old now. Two major foci of the report were on messaging and on building “demographic partners.” Essentially, communicating in a way that doesn’t promote the widespread perception that the G.O.P. doesn’t care about people.

Let’s look at today’s news to see how they’re doing.

From the “Killing Us Softly With Our Song” file: Today, RNC Chair Reince Priebus pens a piece at Redstate (via Steve Benen):

The President, the Senate Majority Leader, the House Democratic Leader, and the Chair of the Democratic National Committee (in whose home state this hearing occurred) made funding Planned Parenthood an issue in the 2012 campaign. They should now all be held to account for that outspoken support. If the media won’t, then voters must ask the pressing questions: Do these Democrats also believe a newborn has no rights? Do they also endorse infanticide?

The inference is that if you support Planned Parenthood you support INFANTICIDE! Clearly, users of Planned Parenthood are part of the vast infanticide conspiracy!

There’s one hell of a make-over there! It’s a big tent…unless you support or use the services of Planned Parenthood.

And from the “South Will Do it Again” file: Eleven NC lawmakers come up with a novel interpretation of the U.S. Constitution so that they can do things like establish a State religion:

The Constitution “does not grant the federal government and does not grant the federal courts the power to determine what is or is not constitutional” according to a resolution sponsored by North Carolina House Majority Leader Edgar Starnes (R) and ten of his fellow Republicans — a statement that puts them at odds with over 200 years of constitutional law. In light of this novel reading of the Constitution, Starnes and his allies also claim that North Carolina is free to ignore the Constitution’s ban on government endorsement of religion

Ian Millhiser points out that this is a sorry attempt to undo the Fourteenth Amendment that is a major constitutional legacy of the Civil War.

Really…it IS a big tent, as long as you worship the right God (i.e. atheists and non-Fundamentalist Christians need not apply). Oh…and you believe North Carolina was on the right side of the Civil War.

And, from the “Catholic Schoolgirls Rule” file comes this from Tennessee:

Republicans are taking a second look at [a school voucher] bill after the possibility arose that some Islamic schools could apply for the same funding made available to other religious schools.

The bill is a top priority for Republican Governor Bill Haslam, but several anti-religion lawmakers in the state senate, led by Sen. Bill Ketron who sponsored several anti-Islam bills in the last few years, are hoping to strip away the ability for any school that caters to Muslim children and their families to receive public dollars:

You see…it REALLY IS a big tent UNLESS you worship the RIGHT God (i.e. the Old Testiment God shared by Islam, Christianity and Judaism) but under the wrong brand name.

And from the “Jamie’s Got a Gun” file comes this NPR interview with Rocky Mountain (CO) Gun Owners President Dudley Brown:

“This is a very Western state with traditional Western values,” he says. “And citizens had to have firearms for self-defense, and right now that’s still the case.”

And maybe the need for guns is for reasons bigger than just self-defense….

“I liken it to the proverbial hunting season,” Brown says. “We tell gun owners, ‘There’s a time to hunt deer. And the next election is the time to hunt Democrats.’ ”

Yes…in this time of troubled shootings of school children, politicians, prosecutors, law enforcement personnel and movie-goers, there is nothing that says, “We care about you” more then not-so-subtle calls for violence against your political opponents.

Feel. The. Love. (or else!)

Today’s news blurbs are just a microcosm of a trend that spells big troubles for the future of the G.O.P.:Republicans are increasingly isolated on major political and policy issues”.

It’s a Big Tent…a Big Empty Tent.

Drinking Liberally — Seattle

by — ,

It’s been nine years now, and we are still going strong. Please join us tonight for another evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm. Some people show up earlier for Dinner.




Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out another DL meeting over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. And on Thursday, the Spokane and the Tacoma chapters meet.

With 205 chapters of Living Liberally, including fifteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Rodney Tom continues to be a shameful asshole

by — ,

Goldy gives a good reason for every woman in Washington state to NEVER, EVER VOTE FOR RODNEY TOM AGAIN. Ever. For anything. And why no voter should ever trust Tom again.

So, for future reference, any time you see a press release where Tom is supporting a bill you support…consider that he might be using his committee appointees to kill the bill, as he did with the Reproductive Parity Act, or he might simply fail to use the parliamentary tools available to him to get a simple “up or down” vote on the bill, as he did with the State Dream Act.

Tom thwarted the will of the people (who elected more Democrats than Republicans to the Senate) and the people of his district (you know, people like ME, who thought we were electing a Democrat) by putting the Republicans in charge of the Senate.

It’s disgraceful.

Friday Night Multimedia Extravaganza!

by — ,

O’Donnell: Sarah Palin is back to pickpocket Teabaggers.

Young Turks: Hypocritical new abortion laws in North Dakota.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Jonathan Mann: George W. Bush paintings:

Young Turks: Veteran GOP Rep. blasted for ‘wetbacks’ comments.

Thom with more Good, Bad, and Very, Very Ugly.

Sharpton: Republicans “reach out” to minority voters by enacting stricter voter ID laws!

Oral Arguments for Same Sex Marriage:

Sharpton: Glenn Beck’s latest conspiracy is that Bachmann’s Ethics Probe is a plot by ‘Radical Islam’ .

Rep. Don Young (R-AK): Wetbackgate.

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

Maddow: A State of the Union promise kept–presidential commission on voting.

Young Turks: Republican OUTRAGE over spring break for Obama’s kids.

White House: West Wing Week.

Rep. Louis Gohmert (R-TX-1) “Pulls Rank”:

Jon is unimpressed with GOP’s Post-election plan (via TalkingPointsMemo).

Washington’s groundbreaking (vaporized) pot bar.

Young Turks: Bill Maher vs. Catholic League.

Sam Seder: FAUX News mocks 102 year old woman who waited hours to vote.

Mental Floss: 45 presidential facts you probably didn’t know.

Gun Safety Reform…or Not:

Thom: Science makes you a more moral person.

The Common Sense Alternative to the Columbia River Crossing (h/t Carla).

Maddow: The stuff Alan Simpson says.

Sharpton: GOP bigots and racists attack Obama’s children.

Finally…an honest cable TV advertisement.

Pap: Right Wing hate turns violent.

Young Turks: Should male politicians be able to vote on abortion?

Detroit’s Lost Democracy:

Bill Press: Michele Bachmann is a ‘one woman carnival cruise’.

Jeff Wattenhofer: Barack Obama is mint.

Sam Seder spars with a lightbulb Libertarian.

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

Can’t Bring Yourself to Type the Word “Ass”?

Eager to share our brilliant political commentary and blunt media criticism, but too genteel to link to horsesass.org? Well, good news, ladies: we also answer to HASeattle.com, because, you know, whatever. You're welcome!

Follow Goldy

[iire_social_icons]

HA Commenting Policy

It may be hard to believe from the vile nature of the threads, but yes, we have a commenting policy. Comments containing libel, copyright violations, spam, blatant sock puppetry, and deliberate off-topic trolling are all strictly prohibited, and may be deleted on an entirely arbitrary, sporadic, and selective basis. And repeat offenders may be banned! This is my blog. Life isn’t fair.