We’ve waited and waited for this announcement. I mean, here we are half way through the current legislative session, but the Washington state Supreme Court has finally ruled on the 2/3 majority laws, brought to you by our state’s top Initiative Whore, Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman.

The ruling: by a 6-3 majority, the court upheld a lower court’s finding that 2/3s laws are unconstitutional.

I’ve not read the ruling yet, but I strongly suspect it will highlight the major argument put forth by Goldy and other bloggers here: ENGLISH. If you read the state Constitution and understand the English language, it’s kind of a no-brainer.

Once again, an Eyman initiative–in this case, several similar versions of the same basic initiative–is found to be unconstitutional.

It’s Tuesday…so please join us for an 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 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. And on Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima, South Bellevue and Olympia chapters meet.

With 206 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

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

Jon takes down Graham and McCain for holding up hagel nomination over fake Benghazi outrage (via Crooks and Liars):

Young Turks: FAUX News’ crazy Al Jazeera theory.

Haggeling:

• Stephen on “Friends of Hamas”.
• Sam Seder: How “Friends of Hamas” joke became wingnut reality.
• Ann Telnaes: John McCain’s Iraq war fairy tale.

Maddow: Half of Michigan Blacks disenfranchised by GOP war on Democracy.

Young Turks: The GOP cat fight, staring Newt Gingrich and Karl Rove.

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

Sharpton: Is wacko Sen. Ted Cruz the new GOP savior?

Washington’s own Fukushima.

Thom: The establishment GOP versus the grassroots GOP.

Maddow: Indiana bill would force women to endure TWO transvaginal ultrasounds, before and after abortion:

Ed: Republicans are demonstrably out of touch with America.

Young Turks: How crazy is Sen. Ted Cruz?

Stephen on his sister.

Seattle Labor mobilizes for immigration reform.

Sam Seder: The Donald threatens blogger over Dump Trump petition.

Young Turks: Drunk tweets from Scott Brown?

White House: West Wing Week.

Greenman: Dark Snow Project.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: The week in intelligence.

Young Turks: Seven Craziest bills in the nation:

Maddow: No stigma for Sen. Ted Cruz for his McCarthy ways.

Pope Affairs:

• Red State Update: The Pope quits.
• Mark Fiore: Pick-a-Pope.

Sharpton: Obama’s approval up; GOP still hell-bent on destroying him.

Stephen: Horse meat (via Slog).

#StopTheSequester.

Thom: Single biggest driver if income inequality.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Who will be the next Republican savior-o-the-month?

Sam Seder: MO GOP lawmaker proposes making it a felony to propose gun control legislation.

Ann Telnaes: Congress takes a recess.

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

Via The Spokesman–Review:

Spokane City Councilman Mike Fagan, in a fundraising letter for his anti-tax efforts, called Washington Gov. Jay Inslee “a lying whore.”

Fagan, and his co-lying whores, accused Gov. Jay Inslee (D) of lying about vetoing “any tax increase”:

“Candidate Inslee repeatedly promised to veto any tax increase. He said no way to higher transportation taxes in 2013….What a lying whore he turned out to be. In recent weeks, he’s made it clear he’ll sign any tax increase the Legislature unilaterally imposes.”

Holy shit…there are a couple of lies in this brief excerpt alone!

Prior to accusing someone of lying about some action (like not vetoing a tax increase) one really ought to wait until they take the action that contradicts their words. Inslee has not signed any tax increases into law. It is possible that Fagan is a victim of childhood lead consumption and, therefore, doesn’t have the IQ to really understand this distinction (if so, I’d blame his father). However given that two other people signed the letter—his father, Jack Fagan, and admitted liar and initiative whore, Tim “Biggest Lie of My Life” Eyman, it seems more likely at least one of them was aware that Inslee has taken no such contrary action.

Fucking liars!

Secondly, Inslee did not promise to veto “any tax increase.” This is so easily debunked, that even The Seattle Times gets a piece of the action of making liars out of the Fagans and Eyman:

While running against GOP gubernatorial candidate Rob McKenna last year, Inslee said, “I would veto anything that heads the wrong direction and the wrong direction is new taxes in the state of Washington.”

However, Inslee never ruled out increasing taxes for transportation and did say he supports sending a tax measure to the ballot to raise money for transportation.

He also has opposed new taxes, although he’s been open to extending existing taxes.

Man…what a bunch of Fucking Liars!

And given that Fagan was lying in order to raise money…that pretty much makes him and is co-liars LYING WHORES.

Fagan and his co-lying whores have even embarrassed the state Republican party:

“There is no question that’s beyond the pale and is uncalled for. No matter what the issue is, it’s uncalled for, and I would condemn such a thing,” GOP Chairman Kirby Wilbur said.

Eyman promises no apologies:

“Kirby Wilbur, thanks for the advice, but no he (Inslee) doesn’t deserve an apology,” Eyman said.

Queue the tearful, “Second biggest lie of my life” apology from the lying whore in three, two….

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. The Longview chapter meet this Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane chapter and Drinking Liberally Tacoma meet.

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

Remember during the 2012 election how Republicans tried to paint Obama as soft on Israel, if not downright hostile to Israel? Here’s Israel’s take:

“Barack Obama is a true friend of the State of Israel, and has been since the beginning of his public life,” Peres and the award committee said in explaining their decision. “As president of the United States of America, he has stood with Israel in times of crisis. During his time as president he has made a unique contribution to the security of the State of Israel, both through further strengthening the strategic cooperation between the countries and through the joint development of technology to defend against rockets and terrorism.”

Consequently, Obama will be awarded a Presidential Medal by President Shimon Peres.

This is shining example of how Republicans will shamelessly lie about fucking anything and everything.

Republicans, as a corporate entity, can only be described as deeply sociopathic. Some individual Republicans may not be sociopaths, but they must lack an ethics enzyme or something. I mean, how else can a person willfully belong to an entity that has no higher principles and simply seeks power through habitual lies?

Maddow: Obama appoints a Commission to look into GOP’s voter suppression shenanigans.

Awesome: I.S.S.:

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

Sam Seder: Republicans jeopardize national security for political points.

Stephanie Miller: Leon Penetta’s comment on mean Washington.

Young Turks: Elizabeth Warren smacks down Wall Street bankers.

Greenman: Minding Nemo.

Tea Party Scandal:

• Freedom Works under investigation for fake Clinton sex tape.
• Thom: The Tea Party is brought to you by Phillip Morris.
• Young Turks: The Tea Party’s Lesbian Panda video

Maddow takes on John McCain for revisionism on Iraq (via Crooks and Liars).

Republicans on the Sequester: Then and Now.

Lawrence O’Donnell: Wyoming Legislature bucks GOP tax trend.

Florida Gov. Rick Scott (R) goes dancing.

White House: West Wing Week.

Bill Maher on being sued by the son of an Orangutan.

STOU:

• The State of the Union Address.
• Colbert: “Socialist stroke job”.
• Young Turks: Obama calls for minimum wage increase.
• Thom’s State of the Union.
• Mark Fiore: SOTU and drones and civil liberties.
• Ed: Obama delivers a ‘command performance’
• Young Turks: Climate change in SOTU.
• Bill Press on Ted Nugent’s attendance.
• Lawrence O’Donnell: How Obama provoked Boehner to stand and applaud.
• Sharpton: NRA’s LaPierre’s lunatic response to Obama’s SOTU
• Sam Seder with John Amato: SOTU
• The Gulp Heard Around the World:
  • Sam Seder: The Gulp Heard ’round the World.
  • Marco desperately goes for the water.
  • Young Turks: Rubio’s epic water break.
  • Sam Seder: Rubio’s thin infomercial
  • Ed: Watered down response.
  • Alex Wagner: The REAL problem was the watered down message.
  • Stephen: Nobody noticed…. (via Crooks and Liars).
  • Jon has some fun (via Crooks and Liars).
  • Conan: Rubio’s secret
  • Maddow: Response to the response and the response.
  • Sharpton: The Big Gulp is late night gold.
  • Sam Seder and John Amato: Obama v. Rubio
  • Thom: Marco Rubio & the Republican Ibogaine problem
  • Ed: Not ready for prime time.
  • Marco Rubio’s other water moments
  • Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Rubio takes a sip.
  • Sam Seder: Forget minimum wage, everyone should just get rich!

Sharpton: Some G.O.P. Valentines day card ideas.

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

Bill Press: Why Dick Cheney is like Big Foot.

Steve Hartman on Arizona’s dildo rationing laws.

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

Think of this as a compilation of the highlights from Rubio’s SOTU response….

The only flaw comes at the end. Isn’t that exit-smile bizarre?

(Via slog)

For once, I arrived at the Montlake Ale House with time to spare. We now have MSNBC on the tube, and are awaiting the end of the Tweety show and the start of SOTU coverage.

I am hoping some of my co-bloggers will show up and contribute to this thread (naturally, we didn’t plan anything in advance).

Have at it with all things SOTU in this comment thread.

5:59: Now that Obama is done with the final election of his life, I hope he uses this SOTU address to come clean about his BIRTH CERTIFICATE!

6:12: My prediction: At some point during the address, Justice Alito jumps up and yells, “You lie!.”

6:14: [N in Seattle]: It ought to be a good speech…today isn’t his anniversary….

6:16: “Tonight, thanks to the grit of the American people” [and no thanks whatsoever to the do-nothing House] “there has been much progress.”

6:19: There is a glistening in Boehner eyes. Obama will bring him to tears any minute now.

6:25: Biden seems to be working on his tax returns while listening to the adress.

6:27: [Carl] John Boehner and the Republicans refused to agree. Why do they hate the full faith and credit of the United States???

6:31: [Carl] The 4-freedoms speech was that greatest SOTU address ever, and it had only 3 or 4 applause breaks.

6:32: [N in Seattle] There would have been more if it had been on TeeVee.

6:38: [Darryl] Al Franken’s burden is that he cannot ever, ever smile in these types of occasions, lest people accuse him of being a comedian.

6:54: [Darryl] Did anyone notice the Boehner isn’t wearing a flag lapel pin? Why does he hate America?!?

7:13: [Darryl] Gawd…I hate the “anecdotes time” during these addresses.

7:28: Overheard at the Ale House: “When is the Republican response?” “Wait…didn’t we just hear the Republican address?”

7:30: Marco Rubio has the biggest ears I have ever seen on a human.

7:34: Somebody should clue Rubio in: When you repeat “Obama’s plan to grow the government” over and over again and throw out terms like “Obama’s obsession with raising taxes,” people recognize that you are engaging in political mud-slinging rather than presenting any serious point.

7:40: Water! I need WATER!

7:50: No luck finding the Rand Paul teabagger response on the tube. How tragic.

This evening President Obama will deliver his State of the Union address before a joint session of Congress. So please join us at the Montlake Ale House for a SOTU-watching party at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally .

For this week only, we will meet at 5:30 pm (PDT). Obama’s address is scheduled to begin at 6:00 pm. Liveblogging will ensue.

For many people, this is also an election day, so deal with your ballot first. Make sure it will be postmarked today, or else find a drop box.

We meet every Tuesday at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Our regular starting time is 8:00, but we will move that up this week for the SOTU address.

The Ale House will have TV coverage of the address, and reasonable audio levels. But bring your own radio and headphones (or ear buds) if you want to concentrate on the SOTU—there will be the normal high background noise of an active pub. Also, there is free WiFi available for streaming the audio. Ask your server for the WiFi password.

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

With over 200 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.

Stephen’s sister runs for congress.

Roy Zimmerman: I Want to Marry Like they Had in the Bible:

White House: West Wing Week.

Ann Telnaes: America’s dirty laundry.

Thom: Homophobic Scouts of America.

Stephen: America’s next President.

Greenman: Joe Romm on Climate, Obama, Keystone, and Consequences:

Skeeters:

• Mark Fiore: Skeet Truth.
• GIFs of Obama shooting things.
• Red State Update: Obama’s skeet shooting photo

Pap: Is the Tea Party over?

Ed: GOP re-branding fail…Talk of trans-vaginal probes.

Young Turks: Dick Morris lies on CNN about lies on FAUX News.

The story of Kid President.

Drones:

• Sam Seder: Bush’s torture morphs into Obama’s drones.
• Jon on leaked drone memo.
• Pap with Jim Hightower: Drones coming to a town near you.
• Thom: Drones, Obama, and the Constiution.
• Sam Seder and Chris Hayes: Obama’s drone strike policy.
• Jon: Obama’s drones ruin his show.
• Seattle Mayor McGinn shoots down Drone program
• Thom: Sky stalkers.

Sam Seder: The real reason the Post Office is canceling Saturday deliveries.

Liberal Viewer: Karl Rove and does contraception contradict Capitalism?:

Maddow: Republicans try to hide their racist, bigoted, extremist base with ‘rebranding’ talk

Young Turks: O’Reilly lies about lying.

Lawyers, Guns, and Money:

• Ann Telnaes: Semi-automatic.
• Zina Saunders: Shootout at the Constitution Corral
• Gun owners show up in Olympia.
• Thom: Did Ronald Reagan kill 20 children in Newtown?

Sam Seder: Marco Rubio on climate change…whatever.

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

The Ashley Judd Threat:

• Lawrence O’Donnell: Karl Rove is scared shitless of Ashley Judd
• Young Turks: The Republican attack against Ashley Judd.
• Ed: Ashley Judd responds.

Jon laments America’s biggest losses.

Morris is out at FAUX News.

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

The suggestion that Gov. Gregoire could be Obama’s next Secretary of the Interior has turned out to be wrong. Instead, another woman will get the job:

Sally Jewell, a retail executive and outdoor enthusiast, is President Barack Obama’s pick to oversee the national parks and vast energy reserves on public lands as Interior secretary, an administration official said on Wednesday. […]

Her private sector experience, most recently as chief executive of outdoor retailer REI, drew praise from conservationists and some industry groups…

And the Republican reaction to the nomination?

…Jewell’s nomination drew skepticism from some Republicans in Congress.

“I look forward to hearing about the qualifications Ms. Jewell has that make her a suitable candidate to run such an important agency, and how she plans to restore balance to the Interior Department,” said U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, the top Republican on the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

Jewell has been a leader in land conservation in the Pacific Northwest, but she worked in the energy and finance sectors early in her career.

(By, “restor[ing] balance.” Murkowski means “increased drilling while opposing laws to cap greenhouse gases that are blamed for global warming.”)

Gregoire is not out of the running for two other cabinet positions, as was recently pointed out:

Gregoire, who has made energy issues a cornerstone of her gubernatorial tenure, is likely headed for one of three Cabinet-level jobs that are vacant now or will soon become vacant: Energy secretary, Interior secretary, or head of the Environmental Protection Agency. As a former head of Washington state’s Department of Ecology, Gregoire is steeped in experience in energy and environmental issues. Her enthusiastic support for renewable energy has won plaudits from environmentalists, but she’s also known for her ability to speak effectively about the realities of the fossil-fuel economy.

Either remaining position, EPA or energy secretary, seems like a good fit to Gregorie’s experience, strengths, and interests.

My money’s on energy secretary. Gregoire has a long history of doing battle with the Department of Energy over the Hanford clean-up. More recently, the battles have turned into happy agreement, adoring joint statements, and public praise.

That’s the tell.

“A hazard of being a member of the stupid party is mentioning you are a member of the stupid party.”

…to Drinking Liberally

Please join us tonight for another lively evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally. Today is the 10th anniversary of Colin Powell’s speech before the U.N. that carefully documented our reason for invading Iraq.

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’s DL tonight? Check out one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter meets, and on Thursday Drinking Liberally Tacoma meets.

With over 200 chapters of Living Liberally, including fourteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter that meets near you.