My first ride on my new (to me) bike was short and interesting:

Riding in traffic is hard. It’s tough to get used to cars whizzing by while I’m trying to avoid a panic attack.

Bike shorts might be a good investment. I went only about 2 miles, but my taint is killing me.

Shifting. It’s not as easy as I thought it would be.

I’m going for it again this weekend, so wish me luck.

From Wikipedia:

Saddam Hussein (28 April 1937 – 30 December 2006) was the fifth President of Iraq and Chairman of the Iraqi Revolutionary Command Council from 1979 until his overthrow by US forces in 2003. He was executed after being found guilty of war crimes at his trial in 2006.

And you know what else? He’s a registered voter.

I blame Dean Logan, of course.

…and unlike Goldy, I don’t have as cerebral a response:

The film was funny, it was moving, and yes, at times it was uplifting. I laughed out loud throughout, which those who know me well will tell you is a huge compliment indeed. The film also brought tears to my eyes on a number of occasions.

I laughed too, and at the end, when the Cuban firefighters honor the Americans who volunteered at Ground Zero on 9/11, the floodgates opened, and I wept. I surprised myself, and I was glad the theater wasn’t full. It was an especially touching moment.

I went in the theater as a healthcare reform moderate, a sort of “mend it, don’t end it” attitude towards our current health insurance system. (Matt Miller, a fellow at the Center for American Progress, has some creative ideas that fit this definition.) I did not support Congressman (and doctor) Jim McDermott’s health plan. After leaving the theater, I’m a changed guy.

It’s war. It’s the American people on one side, and the insurance companies and their DC lackeys on the other. What’s needed is an old timey ass whoopin’, a beating, a clock cleanin’. The for-profit health care system needs to become a historical curiosity, an urban legend, an anachronism. In 50 years at Drinking Liberally, I want young bloggers gathered around a “Joel Connelly” type character while he regales them with stories of how things used to be. You mean people used to go broke from medical bills? they’ll say. The wise, aged columnist will reply, It was a different time.

We need to blow up our current system and replace it with a government-run health care system that serves the needs of every American and is beholden to no corporate bottom line. Considering health care outcomes in America routinely trail those in other countries, I think it is only a matter of time until Americans get what they’ve paid for: a health care system that works.

Shameful behavior:

A Hindu clergyman made history Thursday by offering the Senate’s morning prayer, but only after police officers removed three shouting protesters from the visitors’ gallery.

Rajan Zed, director of interfaith relations at a Hindu temple in Reno, Nev., gave the brief prayer that opens each day’s Senate session. As he stood at the chamber’s podium in a bright orange and burgundy robe, two women and a man began shouting “this is an abomination” and other complaints from the gallery.

Police officers quickly arrested them and charged them disrupting Congress, a misdemeanor. The male protester told an AP reporter, “we are Christians and patriots” before police handcuffed them and led them away.

I’ll remember to mention this event the next time someone accuses a Democrat of being anti-religion.

A great post showing Hollywood’s thickheadedness.

So Elaine and I scored some advance passes to “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” tonight, 7 PM, at Cinerama. She left work a bit before 5 to get in line and hold our place; by the time she arrived, the line was already down the block, and the show was clearly going to sell out.

I got downtown from work around 6:15, joined her in line, and we spent the half hour chatting and catching up on the day.

So the line moves, we’re at the doors to the theater, turn in our passes, get our hands stamped, and then they want to look through our bags for camcorders, etc. I take off my backpack, open it. It’s all work stuff – binders and folders and notebooks, really – and then I open the front pocket, which has my wallet and my iPhone.

(Which is off.)

The woman’s got a flashlight and a little stick that she’s using to do security screenings, and, once she sees the iPhone, says, “I’m sorry, you can’t go in.”

I blink. “Excuse me?”

“No cell phones allowed.”

I point out that it’s off, and she says that doesn’t matter. “The rules are clear. No phones.” She then suggests I leave it in my car.

“I don’t have a car,” I tell her. “I just came from work. On the bus. All my stuff is with me, and I don’t have any place to put it.”

“I’m sorry,” she says, in a very I’m-not-at-all-sorry-voice. “The rules are clear. No phones.”

I blink, look at Elaine, blink again, shrug, and then we leave, walking past the hordes and noticing that replays of this conversation (“What? It’s my cell phone. I have it on me all the time…”) are happening all over the place.

So now Elaine has wasted two hours of her time, we’re not seeing the movie, and the studio (Warners) clearly doesn’t give a hang about it. I understand the need to combat piracy – I really do – but pissing off honest moviegoers with ridiculous (and ridiculously ineffective) rules like this is insane.

Be warned. Leave your phone at home.

As for us? We’re planning to rent something on DVD … and preferably not made by Warner Brothers.

The studio told the theaters, “no cell phones”, because some phones can record video. Never mind that cell phone video quality is awful, movie execs are freaking out industry-wide over piracy. Hollywood seems content to put their own anti-piracy responsibilities on their customers. Bad move. Seems similar to the RIAA suing teenagers for downloading songs.

Cell phone searches will likely end when the movie is released. Still, theaters nationwide should use readily available technology to fight piracy. Night vision goggles are great at spotting illicit recording, and I’ve seen them used effectively. Seems like a better plan than turning people away.

Local politics don’t inspire me much these days.

My favorite city councilman, Peter Steinbrueck, is quitting. The monorail is dead. The Alaskan Way Viaduct is being retrofitted. Mayor Nickels is doing a lot of the hard work put off by previous mayors. Everything is in its place. Sure, there’s some police department stuff, but when isn’t there some of that?

The two major candidates runnig to replace Steinbrueck are Venus Velazquez and Bruce Harrell. Harrell is the business-backed candidate, while Velazquez wants to be. Both want to fix the Seattle Schools even though it isn’t in their job description.

Council candidates talk small ball, but I want to know: what do you want the city to look like in 25 years?

Meanwhile, the guy I do want on the council is quitting. So if you want a “Steinbrueck for Council” t-shirt or some stickers, let me know.

Erica C. Barnett, from an article attacking Mayor Nickels for not going far enough in reducing Seattle’s carbon footprint:

If Seattle is serious about reducing emissions, Baker continued, it needs to reassess its plans for major road projects, including SR-520 (which the mayor and council want to expand to six lanes) and the Alaskan Way Viaduct (which Nickels wanted to expand into a wider underground freeway).

What Erica fails to mention is that, while SR-520 would go from four to six lanes, the added lanes would be for High Occupancy Vehicles (or HOV). You know, for people who carpool or ride the bus. People who, according to every environmental group I’ve ever heard of, are doing the right thing by the environment.

These same environmental groups used their political moxie to prevent Eastside developers, Republicans, and the Seattle Times from getting an eight lane, or even ten lane, SR-520 bridge. Instead, we’re getting HOV lanes, bike lanes, and big fat pontoons for future light rail expansion. Pretty good for a bunch of gutless, caving sellouts.

Before I left my Belltown apartment, I checked the Metro Trip Planner to find out exactly which route to take and where to catch it. It told me to catch the 26 at 4th and Blanchard. The 26 never showed up. I had taken the 16 to the same Wallingford address, so I rounded the block to the 16’s stop. The 16 was there in less than a minute.

After the fireworks ended, I walked down to Stoneway Ave to put myself in the path of either the 16 or the 26 (or any bus headed for downtown). I lucked out, and the 16 arrived within a few minutes. Thankfully, it wasn’t jammed full of people. But when my bus neared the Seattle Center, the whole operation came to a halt. The bus was jammed, stuck in the same traffic as folks driving their SOVs. The bus driver had trouble getting from the right lane to the left lane to merge onto 5th Ave (under the monorail). It was a good 15 minute slog to go about 10 blocks.

All in all, taking public transportation to and from the event was okay. The biggest hassle was the Seattle Center area. When folks I respect, like Joel Connelly, talk about eschewing light rail in favor of more buses, I wish he’s riding the bus with me so he can see what I see. When Ted Van Dyk and Richard Morrill (two old guys who haven’t relied on public transport since the Eisenhower administration) talk about how light rail is a waste of money, I just smile. They’ll be eating dirt while the next generation rides the rails.

When Seattle Mayor Greg Nickels decided to start signing up US cities in the fight against global warming, I don’t think he ever though he’d be this successful:

Mayor Greg Nickels welcomed 52 more cities to Seattle’s climate protection campaign bringing the total to 592 as an influential organization of mayors unanimously supported a national goal of reducing climate pollution 80 percent by 2050.

Five hundred and ninety-two? To think, this whole thing started a few years ago.

“It’s time for the federal government to follow the lead of mayors across this country and begin taking action to address the growing threat of global warming,” Nickels said. “Everyone has a role to play in saving our planet from the effects of climate change. Cities have rolled up their sleeves and now it is time for the federal government to do the same.”

The 52 cities joining the U.S. Mayors Climate Protection Agreement come from just two states, Florida and Iowa. The announcement means 596 cities across America have now joined the Seattle-led effort to cut greenhouse gas pollution.

While conservatives extol the virtues of “local control”, that creed goes out the door when it comes to global warming. Righties mocked Nickels for his DIY approach, saying it wouldn’t add up to much. Hundreds of cities later, their apologies aren’t forthcoming. (I’m sure their congratulatory emails are just stuck in the “tubes”)

Meanwhile, the full U.S. Conference of Mayors today endorsed a resolution sponsored by Nickels that calls on federal leaders to approve aggressive climate pollution reductions as part of an ambitious, five-point climate-protection plan.

Co-sponsored by the mayors of Los Angeles, San Francisco, Chicago, Philadelphia, Miami and 24 other cities, Nickels’ resolution calls on the 110th Congress and the White House to set a national greenhouse gas reduction target of 80 percent below 1990 levels by 2050, a threshold most scientists say is necessary to stabilize the climate. Coupled with the target is a call for a flexible national cap and trade system and incentives to reward energy conservation and development of clean energy technologies.

The conventional wisdom on global warming is that the American people aren’t ready to makes the changes necessary. With so many mayors signing on to needed legislation, why is Congress so gutless? Folks are ready for the kind of inventive free-market solutions to global warming. It’s just the guy in the White House who doesn’t get it.

David Postman quotes Rep. Christopher Hurst (D-Enumclaw), who is thinking about challenging Darcy Burner for the Democratic nomination for the 8th district:

“The reality is there’s no ownership [of the 8th district nomination]. The bottom line is what’s best for the citizens of the district. You can’t say that because someone ran before that’s owed to them. Maybe some of the real hardcore party faithful say that. But I’m sorry, I don’t buy that.

“The bottom line is if you couldn’t win in 2006 you really got to sit down and do some soul searching and do a very careful, realistic analysis. That’s what it’s all about. Nobody owns this.”

Does Darcy “own” the 8th District nomination? Of course not. If Rep. Hurst wants it, he had better go and get it, because Darcy Burner is doing all of the hard work winning candidates do. The ’06 cycle saw all sorts of party annointed candidates run hard and lose, while no-name types scored big upsets. Darcy came very, very close in a district that has never elected a Democrat, a district that heavily favors the GOP in PCOs.

What I’ve heard about Hurst makes me like him (retired cop with lots of family members in the military), but he’s going to have to earn the nomination, just like Darcy did. How? By doing the work. So, yeah, we can all talk about how Darcy hasn’t sewn it up, but talking is the least helpful thing a candidate can be doing right now.

Seattle Times Staff:

Man fatally shot in Belltown

A 35-year-old man was shot and killed in Belltown Friday night during an argument.

The man was walking with a woman on the sidewalk along Pine Street near 2nd Avenue about 10:45 p.m. when a man standing near a parked car made a comment to the woman that started an argument among the three, said Seattle police Capt. Richard Belshay.

The there’s this from columnist Robert L. Jamieson, Jr:

Take a look at story behind Belltown gun slaying

LET’S GO TO the scene of the crime.

It’s Friday night, just after 10:45. Yellow police tape ribbons a block of Pine Street at Second and Third.

That’s weird. As a Belltown resident, I’ve never thought of Pine Street as being part of my neighborhood. Pine Street is downtown. So I visited www.Belltown.org to clarify this minor border discrepancy. Here’s their quote:

Belltown is the northern neighborhood of downtown Seattle bounded by Denny Way to the north, Elliott Avenue to the west, Sixth Avenue to the east, and Virginia Street to the south (historically and decades ago, the southern border was Stewart Street).

See! I told you so! Virginia Street to the south! Hahahaha!!!

If you want some visual proof, check out my Google map here. (Is there a way to imbed a Google map in a blog post? Help me out, computer nerds.) It may seem stupid to argue over a few blocks difference. Quite the contrary: borders are a big, big deal, be it Kashmir, Ireland, or the American Southwest.

That said, I say to you, Times and P-I:

I got my eye on you and your shoddy map reading skills.

David Brewster writes about transit, and in typical Brewster fashion, he backs into his argument like a garbage truck underneath your window.

The case for transit is not an easy one to make for the voters. Costs are very high, and only a few of the voters live near enough to the lines to get much direct benefit. The trickle-down case is difficult to make, especially since expensive transit systems usually force cutbacks in bus service to pay for the rails. So it’s not surprising that the case is invariably oversold. One of the worst ways it is oversold is to urge people to imagine that these first baby steps, or “starter lines,” will someday grow into a full system, as in larger, older cities.

And think, Brewster is for light rail. While the essay is mostly Brewster ceding ground to the enemy, do read the accompanying piece by Richard Morrill. After reading both pieces, I’m convinced one thing is true: Brewster and Morrill don’t ride the bus often.

Which, it can be said, is a big problem with public transit in Seattle. It has been designed by people who never ride it. Whenever I hear some douchebag on the radio talk about how we should just “put more money into buses” instead of rail, I want to fucking puke.

Buses are slow, slow, slooooooooow. The don’t appeal to new riders in the way rail does. Buses cannot handle large crowds, people with wheelchairs, or tourists asking the driver, “where’d Tom Hanks have lunch?” Whenever something bad happens on a Metro bus, the whole operation grinds to a halt. A fucking halt.

Recently, an attractive brunette got on the bus with her friends. One of her pals asked the brunette, “why don’t you ride the bus more often?” The brunette answered, “because the last time I rode the bus, some guy pooped on the seat.”

So, “the case for rail transit is hard to make”? Whatever. It isn’t for everyday bus riders like me!

Here’s hoping my liberal friends get off their “Ron Paul fixation.”

Rep. Paul voted against the “Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act.” What is it?

Senators Chris Dodd (D-CT) and Patrick Leahy (D-VT) and Representatives John Lewis (D-GA) and Hulshof (R-MO) today reintroduced legislation which would give the Department of Justice and the FBI the ability to reopen Civil Rights-era criminal cases which have gone cold. The Emmett Till Unsolved Civil Rights Crime Act was named after teenager Emmett Till who was murdered and mutilated while on a summer vacation in Money, Mississippi in 1955. Public outrage surrounding the case helped to propel the inception of the modern-day Civil Rights movement in America.

But he’s against the war! Right? Right?

I’m sure he’s got some phony-baloney reasoning for his vote (like his desire to privatize most of the federal gov’t, perhaps even the Justice Department), but I hope the “Ron Paul Infatuation Fest, 2007” can finally be brought to a close.

[Don’t know what “jump the shark” means? Find out here.]

Kemper Freeman Jr. doesn’t like the fall roads/transit ballot measure. In fact, he’s funding the opposition. He’s been vocal for years about how he sees transit as a waste of money. Recently, he compared transit supporters to commies and terrorists.

But don’t think Kemper Freeman Jr. isn’t thinking for himself. See, Junior has his own roads plan.

The engineers found that if we simply increased the capacity of the overall road system – 6 percent more lane miles, half of which would be additional lanes on existing freeways, the other half would be additional lanes mostly on existing arterials – we would reduce congestion from today’s level by 36 percent. And it would fully accommodate the 45 percent increase in trips expected over the next 30 years.

Hmm… Only 6 percent more lane miles? But isn’t there another way to reduce congestion the “Freeman Family Way”? I got to thinking.

Kemper Freeman’s Jr.’s grandfather, Miller Freeman, was a renowned racist and white supremacist.

“To-day, in my opinion, the Japanese of our country look upon the Pacific coast really as nothing more than a colony of Japan, and the whites as a subject race.”

Or this:

“My investigation of the situation existing in the city of Seattle convinced me that the increasing accretions of the Japanese were depriving the young white men of the opportunities that they are legitimately entitled to in this State.”

In fact, when Japanese Americans were herded into internment camps, nice businessmen (not unlike Miller Freeman) were kind enough to hold onto their property for them. In fact, some of them still do!

So is there a way to mix Miller Freeman’s racist vision for a “white’s only” region with Kemper Freeman, Jr.’s vision for wide-open freeways? Simple.

Intern The Asians. Stay with me, people.

Asians comprise 12.9% of King County, 7.4% of Snohomish County, and 5.7% of Pierce County [check out the scary facts here]. That means Asian people are more than 6% of the population of the three counties served by Sound Transit and the RTID.

Taking 6% of the region’s drivers off the road will free up highway space for loyal, hardworking Caucasians like me. Also, interning Asian people will be cheaper than building new highways, and we can lock them up quicker than pouring new concrete.

Instead of 6% more highway, how about 6% fewer drivers? As a loyal American, isn’t that my birthright? Isn’t it yours, too?

Josh Feit:

Supporting the $904 million on I-405 expansion in this November’s regional transportation plan (the same plan that Seattle voters must vote for if they also want to expand Sound Transit light rail) GOP King County Council Member Reagan Dunn told the Seattle Times:

The I-405 project, especially, will improve traffic for people who must “drive until you qualify” for affordable suburban homes, said King County Councilmember Reagan Dunn. “The benefits are real. It will help young people; it will help our future,” he said.

His point is: People can’t afford to live (“live” meaning big houses, big yards, two car garages) in the city and so, to provide affordable housing we have to provide roads for them.

Josh must not get off the “Hill” much. “Drive Until You Qualify” is not some GOP trick. It’s exists. My folks bought land in what was rural King County, built a house, and raised two kids. My parents weren’t rich; my mom was working in social services, and my dad worked at the gas company. Even back then, gas company wages didn’t get you a house in Seattle. Or Bellevue. Or lots of other places. If they wanted a safe places to raise children, they had to look further away to unincorporated King County.

More Josh:

It’s a clever bit of demagoguery because it plays to the truth that yes, housing is becoming more and more expensive in Seattle. However, the GOP solution is a Catch-22. The more you drive people out to the ‘burbs, the more you keep Seattle from addressing its housing and transportation crisis, because suburban development takes dollars and developers away from transit and in-fill density.

No matter how much Josh Feit protests, young families are not going to buy “in-fill density” in Seattle. Maybe some will, but they are the exception that proves the rule. You can’t force young families into condos. Not when they can buy a house in Algona for the same price.

You can, however, give people options. Let’s build transit- lots more- in the city and elsewhere. Let’s expand HOV lanes. Let’s spend a little less time telling people what they should want and more time giving them options.

Josh has too much passion for correcting other people’s behavior (except when it comes to smoking indoors, in which case Josh is a flaming libertarian!). If Josh thinks the winning strategy is to lecture suburban folks, and to accuse them of defiling the environment, then he’s got another thing coming. People can only be “lectured to” so much. They can, however, be convinced. Perhaps we should try to convince people instead of just pointing fingers at them.

UPDATE (Goldy):
Josh will be joining me on “The David Goldstein Show” tonight at 7PM on 710-KIRO. Will knew that when he posted this. But I guess Will’s not man enough to come down to the studio and say to Josh’s face. He’s afraid of Josh’s passion.