A year ago yesterday, based on a tip from a regular reader, I posted a little biographical tidbit about former FEMA Director Mike Brown, revealing that during the decade prior to joining the agency, the man disastrously responsible for directing federal relief operations in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina had sharpened his emergency management skills as the “Judges and Stewards Commissioner” of the International Arabian Horse Association… a position from which he was forced to resign.
Up until that point my impact as a blogger, activist and political crackpot had largely been local, but the Arabian Horse story quickly spread through the national blogs, moved national headlines, and served to frame cronyism as a central theme in the national debate over the Bush administration’s failed response. The story also drove national attention to HA, both through hundreds of links to the original post, and through Brownie’s own Congressional testimony in which he directly blamed “HorseAss.org” by name for both his own downfall, and oddly, FEMA’s inability to respond to the crisis.
As a result of this flurry of attention, HA’s site traffic more than doubled from about 35,000 unique visits during the doldrums of August to over 75,000 visits in September of 2005, largely due to several large spikes in traffic, as many as 8000 visits in a single day. It occurred to me at the time that I could be witnessing the peak of my notoriety, and that HA might never see such traffic levels again.
Well… it’s been a pretty interesting year, a year in which I’m pleased and surprised to report that HA’s traffic has more than doubled from August to August — just shy of matching the level of last year’s extraordinary September, only this time without any one-time bumps or spikes. Sometime over the past few weeks HA recorded it’s 1 millionth visitor since joining Site Meter a little less than two years ago, and earlier this Summer HA served its 2 millionth page view.
Not bad considering I thought my original goal of eventually attracting a couple hundred regular readers was overly ambitious.
I devote an enormous amount of time and energy to HA, with virtually no financial remuneration, but the active participation of my readers makes it the most personally gratifying “job” I have ever had. It is also my steadily growing audience — the HA community — that helps make me relevant in the eyes of the traditional press, enabling me to have what impact I have on shaping local political coverage.
So while I am of course thankful to have characters like Tim Eyman, Mike Brown, David Irons and Mike?™ McGavick around to help make blogging easier, it is you, my readers, to whom I owe the biggest debt of gratitude. It’s always fun to see a big spike in traffic, but it’s much more satisfying to see readers come back for more.
So… thanks.
LAS CRUCES, N.M. – Size doesn’t matter. That was the message as friends and colleagues of the late Clyde Tombaugh, the astronomer who discovered Pluto, gathered on the New Mexico State University campus to protest the International Astronomical Union’s recent decision to strip Pluto of its status as a planet.
Photo shows signs that read ‘’size doesn’t matter’’. Obviously written by Mr. Carl Grossman.
Day 13 September 3, 2006 Where’s Goldy?
Mayor Nickels’
unprecedented tax increase proposal and
Tim Eyman’s opposition campaign not only screws the taxpayers into paying extra for basic services, but it also really puts Goldy and the rest of you seattle moonbats in a helluva predicament. I’ve been taunting Goldy for some time now with my “Where’s Goldy” series, and he still won’t tell us where he stands. No doubt, he’s between a rock and a hard place trying to figure out what to do. So as a true compassionate conservative, I’ll lay out the options here for ya Goldy:
1) Open up your wallet and pay more and more property tax every year until you are forced out of your home. Even if you can do it, do you want to make seattle a place where only the rich can live? Or do you not give a fuck about anybody else?
2) Join Eyman’s campaign to fight defeat the tax increase, and expose yourself to be the fucking hypocrite that you are. Admit that you are wrong about taxpayer rights, and thank Tim in pubic for giving you the right to vote on major policy issues.
3) Support the tax hike and agree that the tax money has to be raised, but make somebody other than you pay. You could take the tried and true class envy approach and make those “rich people” in Magnolia and Queen Ann pick up the tab. Remember, a “fair tax” in moonbat parlance is a tax that the other guy has to pay.
4) Or just keep quiet and hope I go away. That’s not gonna happen.
Geez, it looks like Algore is full of shit… as usual:
Quoting from the gawd of global warming: “Two thousand scientists, in a hundred countries, engaged in the most elaborate, well organized scientific collaboration in the history of humankind, have produced long-since a consensus that we will face a string of terrible catastrophes unless we act to prepare ourselves and deal with the underlying causes of global warming. Ladies and gentlemen, the warnings about global warming have been extremely clear for a long time. We are facing a global climate crisis. It is deepening. We are entering a period of consequences.” http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0912-32.htm
Unfortunately, the facts don’t support Algore’s ill informed alarmist predictions.
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/pastdec.shtml
Decade Category 3,4,5 Hurricanes
1941-1950 10
1951-1960 8
1961-1970 6
1971-1980 4
1981-1990 5
1991-2000 5
2001-2004 3
2005 10
2006 (as of 9/1) 0
For you moonbats who know how to use Excel, try this: Take the above data and plot it in chart form. Then apply a second order polynomial trendline to it. Notice the strong downward trend and an R^2 value of 89%. Clearly the number of major hurricanes has been decreasing for 60 years while industrialization and human activity has been accelerating. 2005 is what is known in the adult world as an “anomaly.
If Algore was right, we should have had at least 15 major hurricanes in 2006 by now. How many have we actually had? Umm…. Zero. None. Zip. Nada. So where is the “string of terrible catastrophes”?
Could it be that Algore is full of shit? Could it be that the link between hurricanes and global warming is weak at best? Could it be that there is no fucking “crisis”? Could it be that you koolaid drinkers need to re-examine your position? Nah….
From the Best of moonbat economic theory collection:
…the oil industry is a zero sum game ( like checkers )
Commentby headless lucy— 4/9/06@ 2:56 pm
You forgot to mention your saintly tolerance of the trolls, like those above.
And now that Roger Rabbit has come around to the fact that tax rate cuts do NOT cause deficits, I rest my case:
http://www.treas.gov/press/rel.....growth.jpg
http://www.heritage.org/resear.....s_R/R1.cfm
it is you, my readers, to whom I owe the biggest debt of gratitude
Darn right! :-)
Have you paid Goldy that $100 yet, MTR? If not, STFU.
Too bad Hitler isn’t around to liven up your viewer traffic, Goldy, but the wingnuts are supplying us with some plausible surrogates for old, dead, Adolf.
Congrats, Goldy. Keep giving these trolls apoplexy.
*When you do your job right, people pay attention.
*Of course, the now-infmaous chant after every Seahawks PAT and field goal is: Josh “Brownie, you’re doing a heck of a job.”
*In other news, Tuesday Senator Joe Lieberman will unveil his blog. Your comeuppance in November is awaiting…
2
It must stick in Mark the Gasbag’s craw, bad, that I came out against Mayor Nickels’ ripoff tax increase (why the fuck does Nickels need $1.8 billion for a $500 million backlog of road and bridge repairs?). Not only does it force him to agree with Roger Rabbit, but also forces him to find some other issue to pester me with. Gasbag doesn’t have much going for him these days beyond my attempts to connect a very small battery to a very large capacitator! P.S., pay the $100 you owe Goldy, Gasbag!
3
Hey Gasbag, do you think that Excel spreadsheet can predict hurricanes? How about earthquakes? Floods? How about picking stocks? Or — here’s the biggie — can it PITCH? the Mariners need a pitcher, real bad. If your Excel spreadsheet can pitch, get that sucker down to Safeco Field right now!!! I mean yesterday!!!!
6
And now that Roger Rabbit has come around to the fact that tax rate cuts do NOT cause deficits … ” Commentby Mark The Redneck KENNEDY— 9/3/06@ 12:18 pm
Once again, Mark the Lying Gasbag is misrepresenting my position! Let’s try this again (although any effort to get information through Gasbag’s thick skull is bound to fail).
Somewhere between 0% and 100%, there is a tax rate that maximizes revenue. When the tax rate is below that level, as usually is the case, revenues will decline. And if the tax cut is combined with increased spending, the balance sheet will decline even farther. Bush’s tax cuts turned the largest surplus in history into the deepest deficits in history. Nuff said.
Oh yeah, one more thing — revenues are STILL below what they were when Bush started cutting taxes.
2 DAY TWO HUNDRED AND THIRTEEN
Where’s the $100 you owe Goldy?
Exclusive.
Was the Jew killer a conservative or liberal. In the Seattle Times we have the following quote:
Haq’s friend said he couldn’t believe the timid, “geeky” man he knew from the tutoring center was capable of such violence.
“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” he said Sunday………….
He said Haq was not a devout Muslim and often complained that the Tri-Cities were too politically conservative.
“I’m beginning to think I was his only friend in the Tri-Cities. I don’t recall him hanging out with anybody else.”
Now for the other side we turn to Darryl’s story on HA July 30, 2006:
Psssssssssstttttttt…….
Ah it looks like the story was all a bunch of hot air. Well there you have it. Enjoy you Nazi libs.
11
Josef — when are YOU going to unveil a date with Zits? Do you intend to fritter away your whole life daydreaming about her, while others are fucking her? Call her up, man! You’ll NEVER get to fuck her unless you take a number and get in line! The sooner you do, the quicker your turn will come!
Hey Robert that is my line:
Exclusive.
Was the Jew killer a conservative or liberal. In the Seattle Times we have the following quote:
Haq’s friend said he couldn’t believe the timid, “geeky” man he knew from the tutoring center was capable of such violence.
“Are you sure we’re talking about the same person?” he said Sunday………….
He said Haq was not a devout Muslim and often complained that the Tri-Cities were too politically conservative.
“I’m beginning to think I was his only friend in the Tri-Cities. I don’t recall him hanging out with anybody else.”
Now for the other side we turn to Darryl’s story on HA July 30, 2006:
Psssssssssstttttttt…….
Ah it looks like the story was all a bunch of hot air. Well there you have it. Enjoy you Nazi libs.
17
“Was the Jew killer a conservative or liberal.”
He was a fundie wingnut.
“I don’t belong to an organized political party. I’m a Democrat.” – Will Rogers.
Ah, I see that Seaman Recruit JCH (USNR-BCD) (Yes, I know that isn’t proper terminology, and that when JCH got his “Big Chicken Dinner” he severed all ties to my Navy) is back again.
Gotta have your post in front, even though the last time you posted it, the folks on the board tore it up as the BS that it is.
(Just to recap, for those coming in late. SR JCH has mixed up his figures, and is comparing individual years (2005) and groups of three years (2001-2004) to complete decades.)
Apparently only moonbats are allowed to take math in SR JCH’s world. Good thing he was never actually an officer, because math mistakes like that end up running ships aground. Fortunately, SR JCH’s duties were restricted to chipping paint under close supervision.
That, plus the “witty” saying refering to another poster and the fact that Pluto is no longer considered a planet, is the totality of SR JCH’s talent for posting.
So in closing, let me just say, in my best Chiefly manner, We heard you the first time, Recruit. You were wrong then, and you’re still wrong.
Keep up the good work, Goldy. We appreciate it.
19
“Was the Jew killer a conservative or liberal.”
Same as answer to #17.
Tuttle – Glad you’re here. Here’s one of your best:
“This most recent round of tax cuts will continue to explode the deficit by giving away over $900 Billion to the super-rich over the next ten years. [4/5/06 NYTimes]
Commentby Harry Tuttle aka Voter Advocate— 4/24/06@ 5:17 pm
17, 19
Looks like one wingnut is plagiarizing another wingnut! Man, it’s fun to watch Republicans eat each other! The only thing that’s more fun than watching women’s wrestling is watching Republicans rob each other!!!
HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR HAR
My apologies. It was not SR JCH that chose to re-enlighten all of us about his lack of basic math skills. It was MTR.
Seaman Recruit, You have my apology. I’ll assign someone else to that working party. Now go report back to the leading Seaman for your assignment.
Have a nice 30 days. The run ends in November.
Commentby My Left Foot [……………………………………………………………………..Carl, Would that be NOV 2000, NOV 2002, NOV 2004, or NOV 2006? BTW, does Mrs. Grossman look like “JAP” Nancy “Nip/Tuck” Pelosi? Perhaps she looks like Democrat Helen Thomas?]
My apologies. It was not SR JCH that chose to re-enlighten all of us about his lack of basic math skills. It was MTR.
Seaman Recruit, You have my apology. I’ll assign someone else to that working party. Now go report back to the leading Seaman for your assignment.
Commentby John Barelli [ …………………………………………………………………..E7 Barelli, , Perhaps I’ll assign YOU to the working party. See me before you leave the ship, chief.]
19
Haq was a mentally-ill, baptized Christian – like DOOFUS.
Mark the Gasbag, when bragging about the deficit numbers, failed to tell you two things:
1) The “unified budget” deficit is better partly because the Social Security surplus is still growing; and,
2) All of the increased revenue collections are from exploding corporate profits and CEO compensation, which points to a growing concentration of wealth.
A mention is due to the braindead wingnut cheerleaders who every day remind the readers here of the depths of corruption and dishonesty to which the GOP has sunk.
The people are waking up to this truth and things may turn around in a big way in Novemember.
Thanks for that wingnuts. Keep up the bad, oh so bad work.
@13- Roger Rabbit- a pitcher heading down to Safeco will be mighty lonely until Friday. Having just dropped two of three at Tampa Bay, the Mariners are heading to Detroit. If there is a good pitcher out there, game time Monday is 10:05am PDT…
I wish to apologize to HA readers and posters. From now on I am going to do my best to keep the the personal crap to a minimum. I enjoy this blog. I enjoy Goldy’s sense of humor and his thoughtful opinions.
That being said:
There is one person on this blog who can’t seem to get me out of his head. He attacks where there is nothing to attack. He never addresses issues and I have been guilty of answering back. No more. I will do my best to stick to issues.
33…”I’m taking my ball and going home!”
33 – good decision.
That’s wonderful, Goldie. Now maybe you can do something about the obnoxious trolls in the comments….They make the comments unreadable and unuseful, which I suppose is their intent.
I just watched Keith Olbermann’s response to our Defense Secretary’s rant on how confused I am. The main stream media is beginning to line up behind him. (must be pissing Mr. Spin Zone off no end).
It is voices such as his and Goldy’s that are not allowing the WingNuts to confuse and ignore the issues any longer.
We want our damn country back!
GEE GOLDY HAS 12 PEOPLE WHO LISTEN TO HIS SHOW AND SO DOES OLBERMANNS SO I GUESS THEY DO HAVE SOMETHING IN COMMON.
Rabbit 29 – Insane point #2: Data please?
Didn’t think so…
Palestinian militants who held two Fox News journalists hostage for nearly two weeks threatened in a statement posted online Saturday to abduct non-Muslims visiting the Palestinian territories and kill them unless their demands were met.
The statement, posted in the name of the Holy Jihad Brigades on a website frequently used by militants, said the group would kill any hostages it takes unless they converted to Islam, paid a ransom or Muslim prisoners were exchanged for their release.
“Any infidel blood will have no sanctity,” the group said in the statement. […………OK, pick any 10 muuuuuuslim cities, and “Arc Light strike” them. Go for the civilians. Perhaps this might give the ragheads a clue to quit fucking with Americans. If they continue, nuke Mecca, Thehran, and a dozen other raghead cities. Soon, the Muuuuuuuuslims will “see the light”. [Get it? A little nuke humor there!]
SR JCH asked:
“See me before you leave the ship, chief.”
No problem, Recruit. I’ll be in the mess. Be sure to knock and ask permission to enter.
Chief, maybe a few days in the brig on bread and water might help your attitude toward commissioned officers.
31
Once, while Lou Pinella was manager, a reporter asked Pinella what it would take for the Mariners to start winning. Pinella looked the reporter in the eye and spoke these immortal words:
“Son, can you pitch?”
32
“I will do my best to stick to issues.” Commentby My Left Foot— 9/3/06@ 1:46 pm
Why do you want to do that? Their lack of character, lack of patriotism, and lack of intelligence are THE issue! They call us commies, so why shouldn’t we all them fascists? They yell at us, so why shouldn’t we kick their shins? Not everything has to conform to academic protocol, you know. Even intellectuals like us are entitled to have some fun now and then.
38
Try reading a newspaper once in a while, Gasbag. No, I’m not going to link you to the info; I’m busy right now and have to go off-line for a while. Try doing a word search, I’m sure you’ll find it. It’s been in the business news within the last week. Besides, I’m not your fucking research assistant.
44 – In other words, you just pulled it out of your ass.
Thought so….
Lou Pinella hates pitchers more than Roger Rabbit hates Republicans!
MTF @ 47
The only thing coming out of anyones ass, is JCH’s dick out of yours!
How is that Roger?
48
Correction: Lou Pinella hate pitchers who don’t throw strikes. He hates walks as much as Roger, and I, hate WingNuts.
@20
No, he was a Islamofacist moonbat who decided his life was worthless, and he felt he had to do something right to get his 72 virgins…… So, as a last resort, he decided to do a one man suicide mission. But alas, he threw his hands up in the air and surrendered like a pussycat.
He and the moonbat in California who decided to run over a bunch of people need to be locked up in the same cell for the rest of their miserable little lives.
@50 And if we had kept the Big Unit, what would the 2001 season have ended up like? Such a joy to see him come out in relief- again- and cut down the only true Evil Empire to win the Series.
Too bad it was in a Diamondback jersey…
52 – Johnson didn’t want to play here anymore.
MTR @47- WHy do you think you can ask questions of others, but never answer when asked yourself?
53
Yeah, and can you blame him? After management came out and said that he wasn’t in their plans without even talking to him after the 1997 season, I sure can’t. They were concerned about his age and whether his back was going to hold up. Yeah, that was nine years ago, sure a good thing they didn’t take a chance on his back, isn’t it?
@53 and @55 Johnson only decided he wanted out when the Mariners made it clear they didn’t want to keep him. If they had shown him any respect, he’s have been a Mariner for several more years.
47
Guess I gotta humiliate you, Gasbag … you leave me no choice.
“Federal deficit may fall below $300 billion
“Surging tax revenues signal improvement over White House estimates
“Updated: 4:40 p.m. PT July 7, 2006
“WASHINGTON – The federal deficit appears on track to register less than $300 billion for the budget year ending Sept. 30, as … tax collections are surging … reflecting … strong growth in taxes paid on corporate profits and income taxes paid by wealthier people ….”
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/13758782/
You claim to have FOUR DEGREES, and don’t even know what’s in the news? Sheesh … no wonder you can’t pay a $100 gambling debt … are you having trouble getting the NBC signal in your trailer park?
23.
Tuttle – Glad you’re here. Here’s one of your best:
“This most recent round of tax cuts will continue to explode the deficit by giving away over $900 Billion to the super-rich over the next ten years. [4/5/06 NYTimes]
Commentby Harry Tuttle aka Voter Advocate— 4/24/06@ 5:17 pm
Commentby Mark The Redneck KENNEDY— 9/3/06@ 12:49 pm
I’m glad you liked it, MTR, though I had to look to see what the context of the post was. It turned out to be a “press release” from Billionaires for Bush that I posted in toto. That makes it a quote within a quote.
One could go to tbe Brookings Institute paper for the original analysis, but the following source should suffice:
http://www.cbpp.org/2-6-06bud.htm
Tax cuts for high-income households account for a large share of these sizeable tax-cut costs. Analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center shows that when fully in effect, the tax cuts enacted in 2001 and 2003 (including AMT relief) will provide an average tax cut of $650 for the middle fifth of households, but of $136,000 for people who make over $1 million a year. (These figures are in 2004 dollars.) The tax cuts, if made permanent, would provide an estimated $900 billion in tax cuts over the next ten years to the top one percent of households, with more than $600 billion of this amount going to the 0.2 percent of households that make over $1 million a year.
Harry, We need to tax the rich until they……..leave!! Atlas has Shrugged.
56
I ain’t so sure about that, not because of the respect angle but because the owners didn’t want to shell out the bucks. Remember that in 1997 the Mariners’ highest paid player to date was Junior Griffey at a little over eight mil. Randy was making $6.325 mil in 1997. He made $9.7 mil in 1999 with the Diamondbacks and $13.35 mil in 2000. It’s only been recently that the Mariners brass went upwards of $10 mil for a player, and they’ve only been willing to do that because of the big media contracts and the extra revenue generated by Safeco Field.
Still, they could have at least talked to the guy instead of blowing him off.
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