Three more last night.

Reader Donald S. emails that the 41st LD Democrats have passed a resolution in support of SB 5895, the Homeowners’ Bill of Rights.

That’s just so cool. Good on Donald S. and folks in the Fighting 41st.

In their weekly update, the Washington State Labor Council makes a lengthy and earnest plea to have the worker privacy bill considered this session. Readers may recall the proposal was killed after Gov. Chris Gregoire and Legislative leaders referred an internal labor email to the state patrol, which quickly concluded nothing criminal had happened.

The labor council is asking for someone to take responsibility for all of this. From the WSLC web site:

When a powerful legislative leader unilaterally quashes a bill, that leader is expected to explain his or her actions. Part of being a leader is having the courage of your convictions to defend your actions.

You might kill a bill because you personally oppose it. Then it’s your responsibility to stand up and explain why you blocked a vote. If there are consequences, accept them.

You might also kill a bill for political reasons, thinking you are doing your “members” a favor by helping them avoid taking a tough vote that involves powerful constituencies who disagree. Then it’s your responsibility to stand up and explain why you, as the leader, chose sides. Why did you side with those who wanted to block a vote, over those who wanted to allow a vote?

In the case of the Worker Privacy Act, we’re still waiting for somebody to stand up, accept responsibility and explain his or her actions.

Meanwhile, Josh over at Publicola suggests that there is some amount of unhappiness in the House caucus, partially over this issue. I can’t honestly assess the happiness of the House, living down here in my Clark County hermitage, but there seem to be some legitimate criticisms. To be fair to leadership, the risk of a wingnut-type circle jerk in reverse is something that must be guarded against.

It’s not necessary nor desirable that every progressive bill come to the floor. I don’t know jack about the details of legislative procedure, but common sense tells everyone that out of hundreds or thousands of bills only a few will make it.

And that’s why people organize to advocate for legislation. Business does it, labor does it, and left-handed fans of Rosemary chicken do it. And that’s fine, that’s the way the system works.

But it’s also worth recognizing that most regular people have no advocate sending flowers to the floor, and it’s incumbent on everyone in the much-maligned “system” to take into account these folks. Easier said than done, of course, but killing bills that have wide-spread popular support without a vote is not very democratic. Especially when you call the cops.

From the Albany (Ga.) Herald, in regards to the “Proud Peanut Expo” being held in Blakely, Ga., home of the Peanut Corporation of America. Here’s a nice quote from a local Chamber spokesperson.

“Our purpose is to show peanut butter is trustworthy,” Halford said. “There is a lot of misleading information. The Peanut Corporation of America (in Blakely) was a very small drop in the bucket that seems to be spoiling a whole bunch. We don’t want to focus on the bad; we want to focus on the good.”

Well, at least “spoiling” is the correct word to use. I haven’t touched one bite of peanut butter or peanuts since this case broke, even though I have a nearly full jar of name brand peanut butter I had already made sandwiches from. Clearly it’s not contaminated. However, sitting down to lunch and thinking about salmonella is rather off-putting, to say the least.

The outrageous case of PCA should be a lesson to all industries. Consumers will steer clear of products in a certain category in the wake of mass injury, even products from reputable companies. Ask tomato growers. Or the beef industry. You’d think people would finally figure out that it’s in everyone’s interest to sanely and properly regulate consumer items. Until corporate America gets this message, it’s not only consumers who lose, it’s also businesses whose sales plummet in the wake of these incidents. The cost of sensible regulation is surely less than than the hundreds of millions in lost sales every time this happens.

Props to Marler Blog.

It starts right before the 2000’s with Blowjobgate. American Journalism balanced its coverage between a third Way neo-liberal who was horny and the anguished cries of Republicans who insisted horniness will destroy the Republic.

Neo-liberalism won in extra innings, although batshit had a good game.

Then American Journalism made fun of Love Story as seen on the Internet, balancing coverage precisely halfway between neo-liberalism and batshit insane.

Batshit won in exra innings, with the help of the home plate umpire. American Journalism decided to go see what the sharks were eating.

Then came a Pearl Harbor of our Lifetimes. To deal with the Evil Empire of our Lifetimes, we needed Saddam to Suck On Something. Coverage was balanced between Third-Way hawk viewpoints and those who argued that French Fries were the problem. American Journalism sort of missed the millions of people marching around going “this is a big mistake,” although they did occasionally find time to make fun of them.

Completely batshit won in a blowout, and in an exhibition match, a brain dead woman smiled at everyone. American Journalism was content.

After the Big Mistake, there were even bigger mistakes and shocking brutality. American Journalism started to look into it all, but then a Federalist Society member who just happened to be familiar with late 20th-Century typewriter font kerning was watching TV one night. American Journalism cowered before the power of kerning, fearing for itself.

Coverage of shocking brutality was balanced between a few gasps and calls for more shocking brutality, including against American Journalists.

Batshit won again.

Meanwhile, the Great Recession was happening. American Journalism did not balance its coverage about this because it missed the story altogether.

American Journalism gnashed her teeth and smiled at everyone who was still around. She would get the story right this time, by packaging it better and using Twitter.

Labor wants the worker privacy bill to be voted upon. Rep. Geoff Simpson asks why a handful of Democrats can tell corporate lobbyists one thing while intending to vote a different way.

It’s all there from Joe Turner, the hardest working man left in Olympia and who refers to this thing as the “Neverending Saga.” Understandable.

Yeah, I’m sure many folks are sick and tired of the whole thing, but labor has a right to ask for a vote since the purported reason for killing the bill has now been revealed to be a pretext. And Simpson and others are well within their rights to raise questions about how the process seems to be geared toward thwarting majority rule.

It’s not that majority rule is always right about everything, but officials get elected by the people to pass laws and decide stuff. That’s why we have elections!

When leadership, corporate lobbyists and a handful of mini-Liebermans decide important issues can’t be voted upon at all in the Legislature, that’s not democracy. You could argue it’s just the way the process works, if it ever ever ever worked in the other direction, ie business and corporate interests sometimes get the same treatment, but they don’t and it’s not. Basically an economic and political elite has seized control of the levers of power and is only giving lip service to progressive values. The continued economic crisis only places this in stark relief, it’s been going on for a very long time.

It’s always the DFH that gets the shaft, usually in the name of “protecting jobs,” which is Third Way-speak for giving tax breaks and other preferential treatment to business interests at the expense of regular folks, environmental and consumer protections. You know any Republicans who fight that hard for unions? I wonder how they would fare if 5-10 of their members regularly took the side of the AFL-CIO.

It’s good to see some folks fighting the good fight, however. There are some pretty fundamental issues at stake here, both for the well-being of the state and, more peripherally, the Democratic Party.

Do any families balance their budgets anywhere other than the kitchen table?

Get this– it seems the PDC wants no part of the flimsy faux-controversy “email-gate” involving the state labor council and um, well, the governor, house and senate leadership killing a labor bill.

Josh Feit at Publicola, again weighs in with some of that reporting stuff:

Well, check this out. According to a statement clearing the labor council today, the Washington State Patrol simultaneously said it was forwarding its investigation on to the Public Disclosure Commission. The State Patrol said the Commission had asked to review the emails. But the PDC just issued this statement, denying the State Patrol’s account:

The Public Disclosure Commission today said it did not request materials from the Washington State Patrol concerning e-mail correspondence sent to legislative leaders last week from an employee of the Washington State Labor Council.

And therein lies the problem with criminalizing politics. Nobody in their right mind at the PDC would touch this thing, because there’s nothing there.

Governor Chris Gregoire, Speaker of the House Frank Chopp and Majority Leader Sen. Lisa Brown have some ‘splaining to do.

People are very, very mad about lots of stuff, but especially the latest AIG bailout. The American people are losing patience and tolerance with politicians and corrupt corporate lackeys. (Is that completely redundant?)

Lobbyists should send me twelve (12) five ounce (5 oz.) USDA “Grade A” beef tenderloin steaks, frozen and individually wrapped, or I will kill their legislation.

I’m not freaking kidding. Try me. Flowers too.

No surprise really. Josh at Publicola reported this earlier this afternoon. From a statement Josh quotes from the Washington State Patrol:

Washington State Patrol detectives, after consulting with the Thurston County Prosecutor’s office, have determined that the e-mail sent to legislative leaders last week from an employee of the Washington State Labor Council did not constitute criminal conduct.

—snip—

“We looked carefully at the e-mail and at the law,” said State Patrol Chief John R. Batiste. “We could not find a specific criminal statute that was violated.”

Readers will recall that legislative leadership and the governor used the flimsy controversy to kill the worker privacy bill this session.

Josh has since updated his post with quotes from Rep. Mike Sells.

Rep. Mike Sells (D-38, Everett, Marysville), the sponsor of the doomed bill says: “Why am I not surprised? There was no ‘there’ there.”

Sells says, “Now there should be an investigation into how this decision [the decision by Democratic leadership to turn over the WSLC email to the state patrol] was made. Was it a ploy to get rid of the bill?”

Sells has a point. The state patrol basically dismissed the phoney-baloney accusation out of hand.

It certainly appears Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown attempted to use the state patrol to further their own political goals, namely killing the bill. Talk about trying to criminalize politics. The righties, after all, have been warning us for years about a one-party state. Throw in the relative lack of news reporting compared to years past and it looks like a certain set of leaders has grown a wee bit too big for their britches. What, did they figure we wouldn’t care, even if we’re not labor folks?

Again, I’ll use italics to attempt to make the point: they called the cops on the state labor council over a strategy email that also went to a few legislators. Unwise? Sure. Unkind? Maybe. Illegal? Nope, and anyone with common sense immediately saw that.

I’ll just let all this digest a bit before I start in with the obscenities again, I’m going out to purchase an obscenity thesaurus.

UPDATE–5:15 PM– I spoke with someone at the WSLC, and it sure sounds like sending the email to a few legislators was an honest mistake. Obviously that’s almost impossible to prove short of some kind of forensic analysis of the computer involved, and even that wouldn’t show intent, but golly gee. (Notice I am still not swearing.)

Sorry to get all technical, but anyone else have what in technology circles is known as “groups of email addresses for different purposes?” Can’t say for sure that’s exactly what happened, but it sounds plausible.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer has announced that tomorrow will be the last day of publication for the print edition.

The Seattle Post-Intelligencer will roll off the presses for the last time Tuesday, ending a 146-year run.

The Hearst Corp. announced Monday that it would stop publishing the newspaper, Seattle’s oldest business, and cease delivery to more than 117,600 weekday readers.

The company, however, said it will maintain seattlepi.com, making it the nation’s largest daily newspaper to shift to an entirely digital news product.

And just like that, it’s gone. It’ll be interesting to see what kind of on-line publication will continue. It’s not like having fewer reporters in Olympia has been a good thing.

UPDATE (Goldy):
Last night I went to check “tomorrow’s” headlines in the Seattle P-I, and my usual bookmark produced and error page that resolved to the URL:  “disaster.seattlepi.nwsource.com”.  I guess that was an omen.

There’s outrage.

American International Group, the insurer that has received more than $170 billion in taxpayer bailout money from the U.S. Treasury and Federal Reserve, plans to pay about $165 million in bonuses to executives in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year.

And then there’s north Clark County wingnut outrage.

But the 18th Legislative District’s three Republican lawmakers were spending this particular Saturday afternoon deep in the belly of Southwest Washington conservatism — feeling its bile and talking to its ribs.

They were, in other words, at Battle Ground City Hall.

“There are 15 and a half million illegals in this country that are taking American jobs right now!” boomed Chuck Miller of Camas, a flag pin on his Minutemen Border Patrol baseball cap, to applause and murmured amens.

In the audience, small-business owners and retirees passed around John Birch Society literature and chatted about conservative icons like Michael Savage and Maricopa, Ariz., County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Well, I do understand the need for the Birchers to do something about the Soviet Union, it’s a real threat. If we don’t win in Vietnam the dominoes will tumble and there will be commies invading through Central America and Mexico any day.

Wolverines!

Pass the black helicopters, please.

Apparently Tim McVeigh was an Iraqi secret agent.

And just when I was working up a good head of steam to quit the Democratic Party. The two party system, what a joy it is sometimes. You get your choice between a conservative, anti-worker, anti-consumer party or Republicans.

Consider this in a report by Brad Shannon of The Politics Blogs at The Olympian:

The names of House Speaker Frank Chopp or members of the House and Senate leadership teams clearly are not among the recipients. Lawmakers who did get secondary copies via the “cc” list include Rep. Mike Sells, Sen. Jeanne Kohl-Welles, Sen. Joe McDermott, and Rep. Tami Green.

My source says all are sponsors or supporters of the labor legislation and could not have been “threatened” by the email in any fashion. The source also said the email was the result of a conversation between labor representatives who met Monday to talk about strategy for getting the so-called privacy act passed. The contents of the message were intended for attendees at that meeting, but Johnson appears to have copied others — the mistake that the labor council said it had made in its news release issued this week about the incident.

Just for the record, the primary list of recipients appears to consist of labor people — including representatives of the United Food and Commercial Workers Local 21, Washington Federation of State Employees, Teamsters Joint Council No. 28, laborers union, and others. The secondary list also has labor people.

Wow, someone hit “send.” Pass the smelling salts. I’ve never sent an intemperate email in my entire life.

So what we’re left with is that the “Big Three,” namely Gov. Chris Gregoire, House Speaker Frank Chopp and Senate Majority Leader Lisa Brown decided to get out of a tough vote on a worker’s rights issue by calling the cops on the labor council. I’m sorry, that’s the only way to read this thing, other than concluding that all three of them need to be committed.

I gotta tell you, the mind boggles. These so called leaders are so much more fucked up than I even imagined. They called the fucking cops on the state labor council.

Tell me again, dear leaders, how progressives should support a tax increase. Because you’re going to have to make a pretty damn compelling argument, and if you drag my kids’ schools into the discussion, I’m going to have no choice but to assume you are bargaining in bad faith.

Because “bad faith” pretty much describes this Democratic state government, despite some movement forward on a few issues.

EFFWA wants you!

The following is a list of CONFIRMED Tea Party Tax Revolts planned within the state of Washington. Please note that we ONLY list events happening on April 15th.

————-
City: Olympia
When: April 15, noon
Where: Olympia, Capitol Steps
Contact: Evergreen Freedom Foundation
PO Box 552, Olympia, WA 98507
P: 360.956.3482 | F: 360.352.1874
www.effwa.org
Other Info: Push Back!
Facebook Group: N/A