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Separated at birth?

by N in Seattle — Sunday, 11/2/14, 6:49 pm

OK, which of the gentlemen (sic) shown below is sleazy discredited pastor Mark Driscoll? Which one is sleazy discredited initiative whore Tim Eyman?

I’m sure I’m not the only person around who’s noticed a resemblance between these characters.

driscoll2tim-eyman-full

Yes, I’m coming out of a long hiatus on HA just to publish this bit of frivolity. If you wish, you can consider this to be an open thread.

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Pete Seeger, R.I.P.

by N in Seattle — Tuesday, 1/28/14, 12:27 pm

Peter “Pete” Seeger (May 3, 1919 – January 27, 2014)

As recounted by Stewart Hendrickson of the Pacific Northwest Folklore Society, Pete (traveling with Woody Guthrie in 1941) first encountered the word hootenany as a term for rousing singalongs right here in Seattle.

Pete stood up to HUAC on August 18, 1955. He stood up for all of us, to this day and far into the future.

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1036 days, and 18,263 since

by N in Seattle — Friday, 11/22/13, 10:30 am

Unlike my colleagues here at HA, I have clear, full memories of the events of 50 years ago. Darryl was just three years old at the time. It was years before Lee was born, many years before Carl was a twinkling in anyone’s eye, and possibly even before Roya’s father arrived.

In November 1963 I was 13 years old, an 8th-grader at Heritage Junior High School in Cherry Hill, New Jersey. Just after we’d gotten back indoors from band practice (we were scheduled to play at halftime of the high school’s football game the next day … a game that was never played), the unimaginable announcement came over the loudspeaker as we were putting away our instruments.

Everything between that moment and arrival at the front door of my house has vanished from my memory. No recollection of gathering up my belongings, of boarding the school bus, of the half-hour ride with dozens of other dazed 12- and 13-year-old kids.

Once I got home, however, along with my entire family I was glued to the TV for days. We were a Huntley-Brinkley family, so we watched Frank McGee on NBC rather than Cronkite’s CBS. We saw President Johnson’s brief speech at Andrews AFB. We saw Lee Harvey Oswald murdered by Jack Ruby. We saw Kennedy lying in state in the Capitol rotunda. We saw the funeral procession, with muffled drums, the caisson, the riderless horse, the international leaders from far and wide, John-John’s salute, the burial in Arlington National Cemetery.

Like everyone else, we were in shock. And we were still in shock on Thanksgiving, six days after the assassination. We celebrated (if that’s the appropriate word) the holiday with relatives who lived in the DC suburbs. Over that weekend, we went to Arlington to pay our respects to the President. On that cold, blustery, sunny morning, we filed slowly and silently past the raw, freshly-turned soil of the grave. We had to be careful not to trip over the gas pipe (not yet buried) feeding the eternal flame … not an easy task with tear-filled eyes.

Since I started blogging almost 11 years ago, I’ve written a number of essays about what the assassination of President Kennedy means to me. On my own Peace Tree Farm blog, there’s Forty years (2003), The end of the innocence (2004), and 43 … and 46 (2006). My DailyKos diary on the subject is JFK and the “Where were you when…?” moment (2008). And I wrote The tricks that memory plays two years ago here on HA.

November 22, 1963 remains a central, seminal event in my life. For me, that is the day the Sixties began. The sudden, wrenching events in Dallas led directly to the immense discontinuity between the staid, black-and-white Fifties and the counter-cultural, many-colored Sixties.

How might American and world history have been different if JFK hadn’t been shot? Would there have been a Nixon, a Reagan, a Dubya presidency? Would the Vietnam War have been shorter or less lethal, or even been short-circuited completely? On the other hand, could John Kennedy have strong-armed Congress into passing the Civil Rights Act, the Voting Rights Act, Medicare? We’ll never know, unless we can somehow jump into the alternative universe in which Oswald worked somewhere other than the Texas School Book Depository, or the one in which he stayed in the Soviet Union, or just the one in which he missed his target in Dealey Plaza.

I wish we lived in one of those other universes.

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Silence is golden (especially when you’re running for office)

by N in Seattle — Monday, 10/21/13, 2:20 pm

You may have heard, here and elsewhere, about the hotly-contested Senate election in the 26th Legislative District (Pierce and Kitsap Counties). The seat is up this year because Derek Kilmer resigned after being elected to Congress (WA-06).

The appointed incumbent is Democrat Nathan Schlicher, an ER physician. And attorney. Who graduated from high school at 14, college at 18. Who was an Eagle Scout and is now a Methodist lay preacher. Not too shabby for a 30 year old. His Republican opponent is current Representative Jan Angel.

Piles and piles of outside money (over a million bucks) has poured into this race, not entirely because a party switch would cement the current Tompublican cabal’s control of the Senate more firmly, with all the implications therein.

So why the title of this post (and why am I burying the lede?)? Because of this (emphasis added):

Angel’s spokesman said she wasn’t giving any more media interviews between now and next month’s election. But he noted that she’s been elected by voters in the district three times, most recently with 59 percent of the vote.

Two weeks from Election Day, Angel has gone mum. Why is she hiding (and what is she hiding?)?

Maybe it’s this — in addition to the usual reactionary Republican characteristics, Jan Angel is a Washington state co-chair of ALEC.

Behind that pleasant-sounding acronym and the equally-innocuous title it stands for (American Legislative Exchange Council) hides the source of most of the disastrous right-wing laws seen in all corners of the country. Voter suppression, anti-immigrant, “stand your ground”, “tort reform”, school privatization, and more such insults emerge from ALEC’s “model legislation”. In many cases, exactly the same “model” text appears in laws passed by conservative legislatures in a range of states.

ALEC is (of course) partially funded by the Kochs. There’s also Scaife and Coors money behind it. Many corporations also back ALEC, as do trade groups, conservative special interest non-profits … it’s a who’s-who of the far right. And Jan Angel is at the top of ALEC’s (dung)heap in the Evergreen State.

This Senate race is probably the most important item on any ballot in Washington in 2013. To learn more about Nathan Schlicher’s positions on the issues, go here. And to join me in making a donation to his campaign, use this link.

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A very quick look at the mayoral primary

by N in Seattle — Saturday, 8/24/13, 6:45 pm

Yesterday, King County released the precinct level results of the August primary. I’ve created a database of the results. Obviously, the most interesting race of all was the one that narrowed the large field of candidates for mayor down to the last two. Who, as we all know, are Mike McGinn and Ed Murray.

Though I’ve collected all of the data, I haven’t yet gotten into it very deeply. Eventually, I hope to create map representations of the results. More on that (I hope) later.

My first shallow dive into the numbers involves the 43rd Legislative District, in which I reside. Not only is the 43rd one of the two LDs that are entirely within the city of Seattle (the other is the 36th), it’s also Ed Murray’s home territory. Ed received the sole endorsement of the 43rd District Democrats, and you’d expect it to be the center of his electoral strength.

Overall, the official outcome of the primary was:

  • Ed Murray ….. 42,314 (29.8%)
  • Mike McGinn ….. 40,501 (28.6%)
  • Peter Steinbrueck ….. 22,913 (16.2%)
  • Bruce Harrell ….. 21,580 (15.2%)
  • Charlie Staadecker ….. 6,288 (4.4%)
  • Doug McQuaid ….. 2,546 (1.8%)
  • Kate Martin ….. 2,479 (1.7%)
  • Mary Martin ….. 1,498 (1.1%)
  • Joey Gray ….. 1,318 (0.9%)
  • Write-ins ….. 334 (0.2%)

Turnout within the city was 35.0%, but 2,535 of the 144,306 who cast ballots in Seattle didn’t even bother to choose a mayoral candidate. Murray led McGinn by 1,813 votes, 1.2% of the valid votes.

Obviously, then, Ed must have done much better in home sweet home than the rest of the city. Right?

In a word, no.

Oh, he pulled in more votes than McGinn, but not by much. Here’s what happened in the 43rd:

  • Ed Murray ….. 10,959 (33.9%)
  • Mike McGinn ….. 10,638 (32.9%)
  • Peter Steinbrueck ….. 5,117 (15.8%)
  • Bruce Harrell ….. 2,994 (9.3%)
  • Charlie Staadecker ….. 1,173 (3.6%)
  • Kate Martin ….. 448 (1.4%)
  • Doug McQuaid ….. 342 (1.1%)
  • Joey Gray ….. 304 (0.9%)
  • Mary Martin ….. 280 (0.9%)
  • Write-ins ….. 67 (0.2%)

Ed beat Mike in his home LD by a mere 321 votes, a tiny bit under 1% of the ballots. Mayor McGinn actually led the count in 118 of the 43rd’s 209 precincts, far ahead of Murray’s 83 precincts won. The two tied for the lead in another five precincts. The rest of the LD’s precincts were a Harrell/Murray tie (McGinn in third place) and a win apiece for Charlie Staadecker and Peter Steinbrueck (M and M were 2nd and 3rd in both).

From what I know of the distribution of precincts within the 43rd, it appears that McGinn was strong in Fremont and Phinney, perhaps Wallingford as well. But he also won precincts in Capitol Hill. However, my cursory examination of the 43rd doesn’t account for the magnitude of a candidate’s advantage in a particular precinct. In the precinct-level analysis, a one-vote advantage in a small precinct counts just as much as an overwhelming lead in a large one.

Along with mapping, I also plan to examine the pairwise comparison between McGinn and Murray, ignoring the other candidates. Concurrently, I might look at how the two did in precincts won by someone else — who did better in precincts where Harrell or Steinbrueck did best in the primary?

I’m not saying that these results show strongly positive indications for Mayor McGinn; it’s still Ed Murray’s election to lose. But what we see here indicates that the script of the one-on-one race for November may not match pre-primary (or even data-free post-primary) expectations.

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Election “predictions”

by N in Seattle — Tuesday, 8/6/13, 6:35 pm

Darryl already put up his Election Thread post, but I’m going a bit farther than that. The following predictions of the primary election results were made through the use of population modeling, analysis of previous precinct-level voting patterns, careful examination of the candidates’ position papers and advertising strategies, and… Oh hell, I can’t fake it any longer — these predictions are totally pulled out of my ass, without an iota of empirical research or study. However, they’re limited to races that are on the Seattle ballot.

County Executive

  • Dow Constantine 76%
  • Everett A. Stewart 14%
  • Alan E. Lobdell 5%
  • Goodspaceguy 4%

Port of Seattle Commissioner Position 3

  • Stephanie Bowman 53%
  • Michael Wolfe 40%
  • Andrew Pilloud 6%

Seattle Mayor

  • Ed Murray 25%
  • Mike McGinn 20%
  • Peter Steinbrueck 18%
  • Bruce A. Harrell 16%
  • Charlie Staadecker 9%
  • Kate Martin 4%
  • Joey Gray 4%
  • Mary Martin 1%
  • Doug McQuaid 1%

Seattle City Council Position 2

  • Richard Conlin 71%
  • Kshama Sawant 15%
  • Brian Carver 13%

Seattle City Council Position 8

  • Mike O’Brien 64%
  • Albert Shen 29%
  • David Ishii 6%

Seattle School District Position 4

  • Sue Peters 47%
  • Suzanne Dale Estey 42%
  • Dean McColgan 10%

Seattle School District Position 5

  • Stephan Blanford 51%
  • LaCrese Green 33%
  • Olu Thomas 15%

If they don’t total to 100%, blame round-off error or write-ins.

I’ll be shocked if I’m anywhere close to the actual results. But I’ll attribute my inconsistencies to the abysmally low turnout.

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Brotherly love

by N in Seattle — Sunday, 8/4/13, 11:23 am

Oh, right … with Carl taking a well-deserved vacation, the rest of us were supposed to step in and take up the slack. So, here I am.

By “here”, at this moment I refer to PHL. I got to the airport well in advance of my return flight to Seatac, and while waiting I’m quaffing a refreshing Yuengling Lager between keystrokes. Unfortunately, their Porter (a longtime favorite of mine) is rather more difficult to find.

I’ve been here in the mid-Atlantic for a week, largely to attend the annual SABR convention. Arriving several days ahead of the meeting, I also visited my brother in Bucks County (about 50 miles north of the city) and my 90-something year old aunt in Dutchess County NY.

The city of my youth is a much nicer place than it once was. Center City is lively, studded with restaurants and bars. Best of all, the convention hotel was immediately adjacent to the Reading Terminal Market, a space not unlike our own Pike Place Market … that is, if the food stalls carried cheesesteaks (wit wiz, of course), hoagies, roast pork sandwiches, pastrami, and such instead of that tasteless healthy stuff that populates the dull vegan-friendly cuisine of Pike Place and Seattle in general.

The principal difference — well, aside from the flavors and aromas — between the RT and PP Markets is that the latter is a venerable farmers’ market saved from the wrecking ball of “urban renewal” whereas the former is an exemplary reuse of a once-decaying anachronism. It’s been decades since you could Take A Ride On The Reading, and the line’s Center City terminal was nearly demolished before it was transformed.

I thoroughly enjoyed my time here in my old stomping grounds, but I’ll be happy to leave the heat and humidity behind. Not that it was unbearable this week, but I know it’s just a matter of a few days before the next bout of 90-90 weather.

Now, which gate do I need to find??

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I *do* know the way to San Jose

by N in Seattle — Saturday, 6/22/13, 2:36 pm

Greetings from San Jose! I’m here in the Bay Area for the annual Netroots Nation meeting. Something like 3000 political activists, writers, bloggers, operatives, and practitioners are here.

Yesterday, I attended a panel called Science Under the Rug: How Government and Industry Hide Science. Among the panelists was Penn State climatologist Michael Mann, whose research in the 1990s led to the now widely known hockey stick chart of global mean temperature. The emphasis in this panel was on the determined anti-empirical efforts of climate deniers, the gun lobby, opponents of choice, and the like. Too often, the opponents in separate fields are the same groups, or at least groups funded by the same corporate and/or ideological groups. They certainly share techniques to try to undermine science, to drive wedges into our understanding of the world around us.

Lunch today (sponsored, BTW, by the Sierra Club) was accompanied by a Q&A with Nancy Pelosi. If nothing else, she’s a tough, gutsy woman. It isn’t easy to defend the complexities of the NSA mess — especially against some of the more extreme of purity trolls, which abound in this crowd — but she did exactly that. She turned the crowd toward her side by decrying the privatization of security (Snowden worked for Booz Allen Hamilton, not the NSA).

The Netroots Nation 2013 meeting celebrates the turnaround of California in the last few years. Once saddled with a $40 billion deficit, the state is now solvent, even booming. I’m sure it’s merely a coincidence that this reversal occurred as soon as Jerry Brown took the corner office in Sacramento from Ahnold, as soon as the state legislature achieved a super-majority of Democrats in both houses. Yes, there was a bit of help from the glacially-improving US economy, but still…

At the opening plenary session on Thursday, the location of Netroots Nation 2014 (NN14) was announced. There’s great excitement that, between July 17 and 20, we’ll get together in Detroit. It will be an important year in Michigan — an open seat in the US Senate (due to the retirement of the Senate’s finest combover, Democrat Carl Levin), a wildly unpopular Governor (Scott Walker-wannabe Rick Snyder), and other important political races. On top of that, of course, there’s the symbolism of going to the symbol of America’s collapsing middle class, decaying infrastructure, and other deep socioeconomic woes. If NN14 can be, in some small way, part of bringing Detroit back from the brink, then it will be the most meaningful event in the organization’s existence.

[UPDATE: 5:30pm] In the closing session, we’re hearing Ignite talks from many progressives. Among them — Seattle’s own Kristin Rowe-Finkbeiner, CEO of MomsRising and spouse of former State Senator (45th LD) and recent Republican candidate for Lieutenant Governor Bill Finkbeiner. I knew that she was to Bill’s left, but not this far in the correct direction.

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The Piper pipes up (in New Jersey?)

by N in Seattle — Tuesday, 6/4/13, 11:46 am

Last month, as part of the celebration of HA‘s 9th anniversary, Darryl walked us through Nine years of HA trolls. It was quite the stroll down memory (some might mispronounce it marummy) lane.

Coming in as #5 on Darryl’s troll hit parade was the priggishly self-righteous Piper Scott, aka Scott St. Clair, an “investigative journalist” once (still?) employed by the odious Evergreen Freedom Foundation. His self-important droppings have been seen in many Washington state online venues, from Crosscut to some minor blog called unSound Politics (or something like that).

Some have suggested that blog commenters like St. Clair — right-wingers whose primary purpose appears to be incessantly inflammatory and/or derogatory on liberal or progressive blogs — are somehow paid to interfere with civilized discourse. I’ve seen that supposition confirmed only once, in the case of Kevin Carns, professional troll, one-time Political Director for Washington’s House Republican Organizing Committee and Executive Director of The Speaker’s Roundtable (the WHROC’s PAC). He haunted HA in its early years.

The evidence regarding St. Clair’s status as a professional troll may have been strengthened by something I chanced upon today. I was looking at some of the numerous testimonials and remembrances of the recently-departed Senator from New Jersey, Frank Lautenberg. I grew up in the Garden State, so big events there always interest me. I first registered to vote in New Jersey, and my first Federal election ballot in 1972 included the very same Class 2 Senate seat held until this week by Lautenberg. (I voted proudly and happily for Clifford P. Case, the incumbent Republican Senator … one of only two GOP votes I’ve ever cast.)

In reviewing the obituaries, I chanced upon one in NorthJersey.com, the website of the Bergen Record. The Record is a daily publication in Bergen County, located in the upper-right corner of the state, directly across the Hudson River from Manhattan. With the innumerable major media outlets right across the river, it’s really a minor part of the press presence in New Jersey, perhaps a step or two above a community newspaper. So imagine my surprise when I glanced at the comment threads and saw this [click on the image to enlarge it]:

piper_20130604

Why in the world would a guy from Washington write a lengthy (and derogatory) comment on the website of a minor newspaper in New Jersey? Why would he have “Top Commenter” status there? Why would he have 114 subscribers to his comments on that website, a continent away from his home?

Across the nation, there must be hundreds and hundreds of media websites on a par with NorthJersey.com. How many of those list The Piper as a heavily-subscribed Top Commenter? If he isn’t being paid to troll obscure websites all around the country, what possible reason could he have for being there?

I’m amused that the first two replies to St. Clair’s comment list their locations as “Everett, Washington” and “Everett CC”. Not only does The Piper ride teh intertubes clear across the country, he brings a couple of fanboys with him!

If there are paid wingnut commenters, I suppose that some liberal/progressive blog commenters must also exist. There can’t be as many lefties as righties, though. Just about every newpaper, television, and radio website is populated overwhelmingly by conservatives, libertarians, and worse. I used to think that most of those were local crazies venting their spleen, but perhaps I was wrong.

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Forever young

by N in Seattle — Friday, 5/24/13, 2:33 pm

On May 24, 1941, Robert Allen Zimmerman was born in Duluth, Minnesota. No information is available regarding whether his first cries were hoarse and nasal. Certainly they were unintelligible.

Zimmerman is better known, of course, as Bob Dylan. On this day, “the voice of a generation” turns 72. I’ve been a Dylan fan for a long, long time — at least a generation, probably closer to two. I don’t think I bought his debut album Bob Dylan in 1962, the year it was released, but I’m certain that when I did acquire it a year or two later I could choose between mono and stereo versions of the record.

I’ve taken note of the turn of Dylan’s calendar quite a few times over the years, in a couple of settings:

  • When he’s 64…, written on Peace Tree Farm in 2005
  • Medicare Part D-ylan, which appeared in 2006 on both DailyKos (that’s the link) and PTF
  • 2010’s Time flies…, written at PTF
  • The very brief HBD, Bob! at PTF in 2011
  • Last year’s Happy birthday, Bob, another dual dKos-PTF post

Dylan rarely celebrates his birthday on the road any more. By my reckoning, the Never-Ending Tour has had a late-May break in all but three years since 1996 (comprehensive tour schedules, set lists, and reviews available here). I haven’t a clue how he marks the occasion, but I bet he’s enjoying it.

The title of this essay refers, of course, to one of Dylan’s hundreds of familiar tunes. A particularly apt one, to be sure. Here’s a video of Bob and The Band playing Forever Young at The Last Waltz in 1975.

Dylan wrote the song in 1973, over half a lifetime ago (he was 32 at the time). One wonders whether he was envisioning himself four decades later. It’s clearly one of his favorite ditties — he’s played it in concert 493 times (his 27th most commonly performed song), starting on January 3, 1974 and most recently on November 21, 2011.

So, I wish a very happy birthday to Bob Dylan, and hope for many more. I can’t think of a better salutation to Dylan on his birthday than his very own words:

May your hands always be busy
May your feet always be swift
May you have a strong foundation
When the winds of changes shift
May your heart always be joyful
And may your song always be sung
May you stay forever young
Forever young, forever young
May you stay forever young.

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Our Richard is BACK!

by N in Seattle — Friday, 5/17/13, 4:08 pm

Perusing the list of candidates who have filed for office this year, particularly in light of today’s stunning news in the Seattle Mayoral race, I ran across a nice, pleasant surprise:

pope_for_port

Yes, that green arrow points to the name of one of HA‘s favorite commenters! Richard has run for office before … many, many times. For Attorney General, for King County Council, for County Prosecutor, for County Assessor, for District Court Judge, probably for other positions as well. This is at least his fourth run for a position on the Port Commission.

Richard is several steps above the crank perennial candidates like Mike The Mover (though you have to admire how he gets his business’s name in front of millions of Washingtonians for peanuts), Goodspaceguy, and Stan Lippmann. Richard has been an endorsed party candidate. He has come in second any number of times. In his 2006 race for District Court, he actually finished on top in the primary before losing in the general election — I participated in the recount of that primary, which entailed determining which of the other two candidates would face him in November.

Richard Pope may be the most cost-efficient candidate this state has ever seen. He spends little more than the filing fee, yet in his statewide runs he’s received about one-third of the votes. That’s literally just a few pennies of expenditures per vote. Contrast that with, say, Rob McKenna in 2012. According to Ballotpedia, he frittered away $15,135,367.82 and fooled 1,488,245 Washingtonians into voting for him. So McKenna’s votes cost him $10.17 apiece.

The incumbent in the No. 4 position on the Port Commission is Tom Albro, one of the corporate-shills on the Commission. He’s pretty colorless and quite invisible in the role. There’s no compelling reason to vote for Albro, and (IMHO) plenty of reasons not to.

Thus, unless someone really good jumps in at the last second — and there are only a few minutes remaining for that to happen — my vote for Port Commission Position No. 4 will go to Richard Pope.

UPDATE: Goodspaceguy threw his hat in the ring at the last minute. He’s running for County Executive, as are wingnut Alan Lobdell and someone called Everett A. Stewart. Who knows, maybe Goodspaceguy could make it to the November ballot!

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GiveBIG

by N in Seattle — Wednesday, 5/15/13, 11:53 am

Do you feel pleased when you contribute to charities? Do you feel even more pleased when those contributions are augmented by the contributions of others? If so, then today is your red-letter day.

The Seattle Foundation — that estimable organization, headed by former Mayor Norm Rice, devoted to doing good for King County and its environs — has declared May 15 to be GiveBIG 2013. If you make a contribution to one of the 1400 organizations profiled on the Foundation’s website, all of them 501(c)(3) charities, before midnight tonight, it will be “stretched” by funds from the Foundation and its partners. They have something like $850,000 waiting to be distributed to worthy causes.

I just finished donating to eight organizations that I support both financially and emotionally. They do good work in a variety of fields, from Planned Parenthood to the Seattle Shakespeare Company, from the Seattle Public Library to the Center for Wooden Boats. I didn’t give much … the amounts ranged between $10 and $35. But thanks to GiveBIG, those organizations will receive between [$10 + X*$10] and [$35 + X*$35], where X is the percentage by which today’s contributions will be stretched.

I know that all HA readers, even the trolls, share the impulse to do good. Believe me, participating in GiveBIG will brighten your day. So I hope you’ll all join me in this endeavor. And by all means, let your fellow HAers know that you’ve made some donations today. No need to say where you chose to target your donations, though I’d hope you would feel good about adding a plug for your choices here on teh internets.

GiveBIG!!

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Maybe I oughta check the card at Emerald Downs

by N in Seattle — Wednesday, 5/8/13, 3:25 pm

Yesterday afternoon, David Jarman of the DailyKos Elections group posted SC-01 special election benchmarks and predictions, presenting background information about the district and asking commenters to make their prognostications about the Sanford-Colbert Busch battle.

I offered my thoughts at 12:36pm, many hours before the polls closed in Charleston and Hilton Head:

sad to say … 54-45-1

Sanford in the majority.

And in the House, he’ll have plenty of free time for hiking.

As of this morning, the unofficial results from the South Carolina Secretary of State read:

Mark Sanford (REP)                     54.04%
Elizabeth Colbert Busch (DEM)       41.86%
Elizabeth Colbert Busch (WFM)        3.35%
Eugene Platt (GRN)                       0.48%
Write-in                                      0.27%

Summing Colbert Busch’s Democratic and Working Families lines — SC, like New York and Oregon, uses fusion voting — we get 45.22% as her total percentage. Rounded to integers, that comes to 54-45-0; had the Green picked up 27 more votes, his total would have rounded up to 1%.

So… who’s running in the Hastings Handicap this Sunday?

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Does Louie Gohmert troll here?

by N in Seattle — Saturday, 4/27/13, 1:40 am

Either that, or one of our most logorrheic troll/commenters has been channeling him.

Bonus quote of the day (April 26, 2013), Taegan Goddard’s PoliticalWire:

This administration has so many Muslim brotherhood members that have influence that they just are making wrong decisions for America.

— Louie Gohmert (R-TX-01)

Said troll/commenter will go especially batshit-crazy when I tip my hat to Hunter at DailyKos, whose frontpage post alerted me to the latest “wisdom” from Mr. Gohmert.

Needless to say, the Congressman’s latest idiotic pronouncement was uttered on WorldNutDaily Radio.

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Inauguration Day review: the real Election Day

by N in Seattle — Sunday, 1/20/13, 6:43 pm

As we look forward to Barack Obama’s second inauguration (and fourth Oath of Office*), let us hearken back to the day he was re-elected. I refer, of course, to the Monday following the second Wednesday in December (in 2012, that was December 17). That’s when all 538 Presidential and 538 Vice Presidential votes were cast. That’s when 332 of those Electors — a clear, solid majority of the electorate — voted for the winning ticket, Obama and Biden. You may think you were voting for Obama/Biden or Romney/Ryan (or even for one of the other pairs on the ballot) on November 6, but you weren’t. In truth, you were voting for slates of Electors, who are the only Americans who actually cast Presidential and Vice Presidential ballots.

*

  1. botched by the Chief Justice in 2009
  2. re-administered in 2009
  3. privately, today
  4. tomorrow at noon

You weren’t an Elector, nor was I. However, I was a whole lot closer to matriculating at the Electoral College than any of our readers — had Maria Ehsan, the Elector chosen at the 7th Congressional District’s Democratic caucus back in May, been unable to attend the Electoral College meeting in Olympia, yours truly (the Alternate Elector from WA-07) would have taken her place as one of Washington’s 12 Electors.

So I was right there in the State Reception Room in Olympia’s Legislative Building at noon on December 17, peering over the shoulders of the Electors as they cast their votes. I can affirm that we had no faithless Electors in the state of Washington in 2012, despite the ridiculous efforts of teahadists to get them to change their minds. Even I, as a mere Alternate, received a letter from one of them; if you’re interested, you can read a DailyKos diary I wrote about it, as well as the letter itself (page 1, page 2). The Electors — and, I presume, Democratic Electors in all of the blue states — were hit with both snail-mail and email.

Electors at work

Parenthetically, in its Presidential election history since 1892, Washington has seen one faithless Elector. In 1976, when Washington backed Jerry Ford over Jimmy Carter (who, of course, won nationally), Republican Elector Mike Padden wrote Ronald Reagan on his ballot. Reagan had narrowly lost to the incumbent President in the GOP primaries and convention, and apparently Padden was still upset about it.

And where is this renegade, this apostate, now? Why, he was just re-elected to the State Senate from the 4th LD near Spokane; this lawbreaker (RCW 29A.56.340 cites a $1000 fine for faithless Electors) currently chairs the Senate Law and Justice Committee. Then again, Republicans probably think he was a savant for tossing aside Ford to choose St. Ronnie four years early.

So what was it like to participate in this Constitutionally-mandated ceremony, this unique exercise of the American system of governance? To be honest, it was a rather dull event, carefully stage-managed by Sam Reed and his staff. They had a very strict protocol to follow, directed by the National Archives. Except for a couple of verbal slips — Sam Reed: “the United Nations, uh, I mean States”, presiding Elector Heather Fralick: “12 votes for Joe Biden as President of the United States” — the really interesting stuff came before the Electoral College was convened and right at the very end of the event.

Before going into that, though, here’s proof that Washington’s Electors voted as their fellow voters asked them to:

Barack on POTUS ballotJoe on VP ballot
[Read more…]

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