Please join us this evening for a “bonus budgetary projection” episode of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

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

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

With 204 chapters of Living Liberally, including seventeen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and two more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.

The Army Corps of Engineers, which is responsible for environmental review for civil works projects that affect navigable waters—projects like the Gateway Pacific Terminal—“will not take into consideration the green house gases that will be emitted when the coal is burned in Asia.” In testimony before Congress, a Corps spokesperson, described the effects as “too indirect” and therefore outside of the scope of their mandate.

If not the Engineers, then who will be the champion for Mother Earth?

Perhaps, Capitalism and the “Invisible Hand of the Market” will save Her from us? I mean, in the long run, higher profits will be made from an increasingly high-functioning, orderly, safe and healthy world!

Or not….

Bob Watters is with SSA Marine, the company that wants to build the Gateway Pacific Terminal.

He says climate change has no place in the environmental review.

Mother Earth…you are soooooo fucked.

Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was Duluth, GA.

This week’s contest is from somewhere in Washington state, good luck! And Happy Father’s Day!

Leviticus 20:9
For every one that curseth his father or his mother shall be surely put to death: he hath cursed his father or his mother; his blood shall be upon him.

Happy Goddamn Father’s Day. And discuss.

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

White House: West Wing Week.

The New and Improved G.O.P. War on Women™:

• Sam Seder: GOP lawmaker on men’s brains and women’s brains
• Maddow: Virginia Voters show signs of backlash against GOP anti-abortion extremism.
• Alex Wagner: Misogynist House Republicans advance another anti-abortion bill.
• Why are Republicans so fixated on rape and abortion?.
• Maddow: Republicans of Wisconsin Push Extreme Anti-abortion Laws:
• Sharpton: Wisconsin GOP misogynists push new ultrasound law
• Ann Telnaes: More Republican expertise on the female body.
• Sam Seder: FAUX guest implies Plan B promotes pedophiles

Thom: Even more of the Good, the Bad, and the Very, Very Ugly.

John Oliver: Gaywatch…international edition.

John Fugelsang: He’s 83, single and worth $11billion…..

Young Turks: Ohio State Rep. Dan Ramos proposes a way to end Citizens United without going through Congress.

ONN: Week in Review.

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

Maddow: Christmas in Texas and protection from the Gays.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Week in Review.

NSAy What?

• Ann Telnaes: Gathering metadata.
• Jonathan Mann: NSA is Listening
• Town Square: Is NSA mass surveillance Okay if Obama Does it?
• Young Turks: Record breaking hypocrisy at FAUX News
• Sam Seder: Sean Hannity’s hardcore flip-flopping on NSA surveillance
• Tap It: The NSA Slow Jam.
• Operation everyone talk like a terrorist all the time:
• Young Turks: Bill-O The Clown shows massive hypocrisy over NSA program
• Mark Fiore: United States of Surveillance.
• Ann Telnaes: Spying semantics.

Pap: America’s crumbling infrastructure.

Stephen: Wall Street Journal’s Dorothy Rabinowitz crazy op-ed (via Crooks and Liars).

White House: Celebrating Father’s Day.

Maddow: The GOP’s obsession with sodomy, voodoo, satanism, racism & bigotry.

Sharpton: Obama calls out Republican obstructionism

Issa Idiot:

• O’Donnell: ‘Car thief’ Darrell Issa’s IRS investigation is falling apart!.
• Thom: Is Darrell Issa a bad investigator, or just a big liar?
• Sharpton: ‘Car thief’ Darrell Issa flips on IRS employee interview transcripts

Jeb Bush on those “more fertile” immigrants.

John Oliver: On the media coverage of Edward Snowden.

Politico Playback: The week in late night.

Chris Hayes: Jan Brewer rips Arizona GOP apart over Medicaid expansion (via Crooks and Liars).

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

The “New and Improved” Republican War on Women™ moves to Wisconsin.

Over eight hours Thursday, Republican lawmakers passed not only the ultrasound bill but two other bills restricting access to abortion and contraception. One bans state health care plans from covering abortions and exempts religious groups from the state requirement to provide birth control insurance coverage. The other prohibits sex-selective abortions and imposes fines on physicians.

The ultrasound bill also requires abortion providers to have admitting privileges at a hospital within 30 miles of the clinic, which Planned Parenthood of Wisconsin says could force the closure of its Appleton-area clinic.

During a contentious floor session Wednesday, the Senate also passed the ultrasound bill after Republican leaders cut off debate. Gov. Scott Walker has said he will sign the bill into law. The other two abortion bills now head to the Senate, where leaders say they might not get to them until this fall, after the summer recess.
[...]

One of the amendments offered by Democrats that failed to pass would have specified that only an abdominal ultrasound could be required and not the more invasive vaginal probe.

Holy fuck, where do they dig up these troglodytes?

Among other horrible effects of these inhumane bulls, rape victims in Wisconsin will get a little bit extra rape, thanks to Gov. Walker and the esteemed G.O.P. men of the Wisconsin legislature.

Your move, women of Wisconsin….

* I updated the title to reflect the fact that an ultrasound is not medically necessary before the vast majority of abortions. Hence a bill requiring a medically unnecessary transvaginal ultrasound is, essentially, rape. The lawmakers who voted for this bill are rapists.

The Washington state government is headed for a shutdown if a budget is not passed by the end of the month.

Wouldn’t a shutdown make Rodney Tom the Newt Gingrich of Washington State?

So, I threw my computer and a water bottle in a bag and rode off. But it turns out that the bottle wasn’t fully screwed on. So good news my bag is definitely water proof. Bad news my computer sat in a puddle of water for half an hour, and is dying. So just a quick post to say I don’t know when any future posts will be.

It goes without saying that lawmakers should close the estate tax loophole before the Friday deadline, so that the state isn’t out of that money for the education trust. The voters approved it, and the money is needed. It all goes to education, and the Senate Republicans Republicans are ostensibly for education first. But the Republicans are being jackasses because of course they are. So, I hope the state can restore that money by the deadline.

But if the GOP remain intransigent, the money should come out of their school districts. It should hurt their children.

Now that summer is almost here, the cruise ships arrive daily in Elliot Bay. They let tourists off from all over the world. Other tourists are here with their friends or family. Inevitably they come to Pike Place Market. I’ve shown people from the East Coast, from Guam, and from points between the market. When I was 8 and living in New York, my family came and visited and my Dad’s parents out here took us to the market where we had a great time. It’s great, and I’m glad you’re here. But on top of being a tourist trap, the market is also a grocery store for a lot of people in the neighborhoods around it. So here are some tips to not get on their bad side:

Walking can be tricky. The place is small and cramped, and you don’t know what stall you want to stop at. Still, try not to randomly stop when there’s space in front of you. There’s a good chance that if you’re going in a group, that it’ll get separated. Instead of turning around randomly, turn around when you’re stopped by the normal course of walking in a cramped space. Or move to the side to let other people pass.

You’re going to want to take a picture of fruit at some point. I know, I know, it seems strange. My advice is have your camera out ahead of time, so you don’t have to fumble with it.

If you drove here, you may think you can find parking on Pike Place. There is a street there, and in theory there is some parking, but you’re not going to be able to find some. There are parking lots around. And Metro buses that will get you pretty close. Don’t circle through the market looking for a spot, because you’re not going to find one.

Finally, it’s called Pike Place Market. There is a Pike Street nearby, but the market itself is on Pike Place. If you call it Pike Street market loud enough that a local can hear you, they will hate you. Also, if you call it Pike Market, Pike’s Market, or Pike’s Peak Market.

Please join us this evening for, yet, another “special session” of the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.

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

Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out plethora of other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight there are also meetings of the Tri-Cities and Vancouver, WA chapters. On Wednesday, the Bellingham chapter meets.
On Friday, Washington’s newest chapter, the Centralia chapter of Drinking Liberally, meets. Finally, next Monday, the Yakima chapters meet.

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

- Well that special session totally, totally had a point.

- We have very little privacy unless we live completely off the grid. So how do we protect it?

- The Morning After Pill is available to all ages.

- Big corporations collect a vast amount of data about us. And then they ignore it and give us ads like these instead.

- Well, if the British are on board with our spying, then I guess…nope, still ought to be dialed back.

- A look at Seattle’s terrifyingly normal streets

- Hillary Clinton is on Twitter.

A few months ago in an Open Thread, I linked positively to this Sally Clark piece on finding a body during the One Night Count. It seemed like it was compassionate, and human. I now realize that was incorrect. That piece wasn’t her feeling sorry for a homeless person who had died, it was her dragging it in front of the rest of the world like a cat with a dead bird. How else do you explain her and 6 colleagues moving to force the closure of Nickelsville with only vague assurances of funding to solve the problem?

This morning, at the city council briefing, Council Member Sally Clark circulated a letter, addressed to Mayor McGinn, regarding the Nickelsville homeless encampment in Highland Park. All the council members except the two who have recently been working on homeless encampment legislation—that’s Nick Licata and Mike O’Brien—signed it.

This letter, which West Seattle Blog has a copy of here, asks the mayor to direct the city’s Human Services Department in planning and providing “immediate targeted outreach and engagement services to the Nickelsville residents along with immediate provisions of shelter, housing and other services.” Citing “a public health and safety emergency,” they ask that the plan be developed, implemented, and then Nickelsville be shut down, all by September 1, 2013.

As to the money that would cost, the letter says: “We recognize added resources may be required and, to that end, we will introduce legislation to authorize funding for this purpose.” They do not say how much or where it will come from.

Unfortunately, McGinn is going along (not sure what other options he has).

I appreciate the work of Councilmembers Licata and O’Brien for working on expanding legal options for encampments, which built upon the work of an advisory task force I assembled in my first year in office. For some time we have delayed enforcement of the law against encampments on industrial lands while the City Council examined these proposals to provide more opportunities for legal encampments in the City of Seattle. In light of the City Council’s clear statement of intent that they will not expand encampments further, and that they expect Nickelsville to clear the property by September 1, motivated in part by the desire to sell this property to Food Lifeline, I have no further basis to not enforce the law.

We will provide additional services, including extended winter shelter hours through the summer. Absent a change in direction by the City Council, by September 1 we expect the property to be vacated and we will follow the City Council’s direction to evict those who remain.

And look, none of this is to say that Nickelsville is a particularly good solution to Seattle’s homelessness problem. But whatever half assed fixes Seattle gets between now and September — if we even get the promised half assed fixes — won’t be enough. And as the September days turn chillier and chillier, well, it won’t be the members of the City Council out in the cold.

- The net effect—one mandatory off-street parking space plus one car-less household—is a one-space reduction of parking supply on my block. Repeat: my obligatory driveway and garage deprive the universe of one on-street slot.

- I think Joel is overselling the problems with installing a streetcar. I mean traffic where they’re installing one now isn’t great, but it isn’t in the best of times. And it’s not that much worse than it has been in the past (yes, Joel sites some examples, but there isn’t much concrete data).

- Snowden’s whistleblowing gives us the possibility to roll back a key part of what has amounted to an “executive coup” against the US constitution.

- UW kids against the Kochs

- How dare they accept our meek acceptance of power?

Last week’s contest was won by milwhcky. It was Detroit.

This week’s is from the Google Maps 45 degree views, good luck!

1 Timothy 5:23
Stop drinking only water, and use a little wine because of your stomach and your frequent illnesses.

Zina Saunders: Hell rejects Margaret Thatcher.

John Fugelsang presents: ‘The Deeply Embarrasing Senator of the Week Award’.

Michele Quits:

• Stephen on Michele Bachmann’s greatest hits.
• Katrina vanden Heuvel: Good bye and good riddance
• Dave Rubin: Michele says goodbye.

Sam Seder: Mitt Romney thinks Hurricane Sandy was to blame.

Bill Maher with some new rules.

The Rob Ford crack-smoking video leaked.

Thom: Why California will be the new face of Obamacare.

Lawrence O’Donnell: The ‘rape’ men of the GOP.

Sam Seder: GW Bush uses Vets to relieve himself of guilt.

John Fugelsang: People who supported NSA Condoleezza Rice can’t criticize NSA Susan Rice:

Ann Telnaes: The military version of zero tolerance.

Surveillance Nation:

• Stephen on NSA surveillance.
• Liberal Viewer: FAUX News espionage act hypocrisy.

Susie Sampson’s Tea Party Report: Scandal! State of America.

Young Turks: When God saved Boehner.

Jonathan Mann: Ode to the NY Times legal force.

Kimmel: This week in unnecessary censorship.

Sam Seder: GOP Senator blames hormones for military sexual assaults.

Maddow: GOP’s & FAUX News’ History of Fake ‘Obama Smoking Guns’

• Part I.
• Part II.

Stephen on Superman.

Thom: Why are “We the People” subsidizing the Tea Party:

Sharpton: GOP tells ‘car thief’ Darrell Issa to ‘cool it’.

Mental Floss: 31 Strange Medical Conditions.

The week in Chris Christie:

• Jon on Gov. Chris Christie.
• Sam Seder: Christie spends $12 Million to protect his reelection
• Young Turks: Christies big fat election.

Bill Maher: Pot is the new gay marriage.

O’Donnell: Incompetent Rudy Giuliani was an ‘unwitting accomplice’ of Al-Qaeda.

White House: West Wing Week.

ONN: Week in Review.

Jon says goodbye.

Young Turks: Is Roger Ailes insane?

Maddow: Not much for GOP to build on in outreach to women voters.

Ann Telnaes: More sexist nonsense from Republicans.

John Fugelsang and Dan Savage: Interrupting Michelle Obama.

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

For the most part, I like what Emmett O’Connell is saying here about the Northwest attitude and the difficulty of outsiders to get it.

The same study pointed out that the typical Northwesterner was very open, but also very introverted. So, take that with the very sane label, I could see why crazy extroverts from other parts of the country would have trouble here.

So, long story short: we have a regional personality here in Cascadia. It is open, quiet and sane. It isn’t for everyone, but it was what defines us. There’s Southern Charm, Northeast brashness and up here we have Cascadian Calm

Right!

Still, I think he understates some of than animus toward people from the rest of the country. I mean it has warn off some, but Emmett Watson made a living hating Californians. And while the California hate was probably stronger than the rest of the country, East Coasters and people from all over get it too.

It’s not fair to say Rodney Tom doesn’t have a budget. He totally does. You just can’t see it. It’s, um, in Canada. But it’s totally real.

The Senate Majority Coalition Caucus called a 6-minute press conference on Thursday to say that they’ve made a counter-offer to the House on the budget. But they released no details about what’s in that offer.

[...]

Senate Majority Leader Rodney Tom said the Senate made a “comprehensive offer” back to the House on Thursday morning, but would not say what that offer entailed.

Look you guys, I don’t want to use this press conference about my budget to bring the media into the budget process. But my budget proposal is real. It’s real. It’s just so awesome that if you saw it you’d be sad that it wasn’t your budget, so I can’t show it to you.

That press conference was so bizarre that even Josh Feit, who usually bends over backwards to give the conservative side, was flabbergasted.

Tom’s response to the proposal was breif and bizarre.

Asked about the Democratic proposal today, Tom said it wouldn’t meet the “dependable funding” requirement of the McCleary decision because the money from closing tax loopholes was going to the public for a vote. “This isn’t the old Soviet Union where you can guarantee an election,” he said.

However, the Democrats’ proposal to close $255.6 million in seven tax loopholes is not attached to a public vote. Sponsor Carlyle says: “There is no referendum clause. There never has been. Absolutely not. Unequivocally. Emphatically. Period. End of sentence. Have a nice day.”