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Drinking Liberally — Seattle

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DLBottle
It’s Tuesday. And that means the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally meets for an evening of politics over a pint.

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 one of the other DL meetings over the next week. Tonight the Tri-Cities chapter also meets. The Longview, Lakewood, and South Seattle chapters meet this Wednesday. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet. Next Monday, the Aberdeen, Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.

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

Comments

  1. 1

    The deficit is plunging like GOP senators’ approval ratings after the gun vote. The congressional budget office now estimates a deficit of $643 billion for FY 2013, about 4% of GDP compared to 10% in 2009 under Chimp’s last budget.

    The Party of Stupid, of course, believes the way to eliminate deficits is by eliminating taxes. This sort of implies eliminating government, to which they pay lip service, but guess what GOP governors and legislators are doing with the surpluses now filling many states’ coffers? Spending ’em.

    In fact, Republicans never really stopped spending. Hell, they didn’t even slow down — federal spending rose 3x faster under Bush than Clinton. (Compare that with Obama, who has the slowest spending growth of any president since Eisenhower.) The only reason we had these enormous deficits in the first place is because of the tax breaks they shoveled at billionaires and the temporary drop in tax collections due to the depression they caused.

  2. 2

    Stocks and CEO compensation are going up so much the budget could be in surplus within a couple years just from the capital gains taxes and mildly higher tax rates on top earners.

  3. 3

    Roger Rabbit Quiz

    Okay, this is a test of rational reasoning ability. Not exactly an IQ test, but similar. It’s designed to weed out exceptionally stupid trolls from merely dumb ones. Ready?

    If a CEO’s compensation increases from $20 million a year to $40 million a year, and he has to pay $5 million more taxes, is he richer or poorer than he was last year?

  4. 4

    And does anyone believe corporate boards don’t factor in the taxes these guys will have to pay when they calculate their compensation packages?

  5. 5

    Has any CEO ever told his board, “Don’t give me a raise, because my taxes will go up?”

  6. 6

    @1

    It’s even infected state houses in GOP land. Missouri has a $400M budget surplus. The fiscal conservative House budget committee chairman Rick Stream now wants to spend a chunk of that money on a $120 million office building in the state capitol. Texas cut their budget buy $15B, now predict they will end 2013 with an almost $9B surplus.

  8. 8

    7) It does seem that way.

    Ny the way, notice that the prices are going up again, but isn’t it just time of year they do go up, before the beginning of summer?

  9. 9

    RR, have you actually read the article or you are just spouting nonsense to connect President Bush to it.
    The regulators are EU regulators (that’s Europe for you), the companies are Shell (Dutch), BP (British) and Statoil (Norway). Again, Europe.

    But hey, why worry about details…

  11. 11

    @9 Of course I read it. I didn’t say the GOP’s organ grinder monkey had anything to do with it. I simply noted a strange coincidence of timing. Coincidences happen all the time. If you read anything more into it, that’s a result of your mental process, not mine.

  12. 12

    Cry Me A River Dep’t

    “Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said on CNBC’s ‘The Kudlow Report’ the IRS’ ‘huge scandal’ is just one of many instances where the Obama administration has attacked conservatives and the First Amendment.”

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100737368

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: I sure hope so. I’ve been saying for years that we should behave like them. Let’s waterboard ’em all!

  13. 13

    Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s make Republicans wait in line for 10 hours to vote. In the rain. Turnabout is fair play!

  14. 14

    13) Sounds good. The problem here is we made it easy to vote in Washington. I think our redistricting commission got it right last year.

  15. 15

    The mayor of Osaka, Japan said yesterday it was “necessary” to provide sex slaves to Japanese troops during World War II to give them a “rest.” Yeah, no doubt they had a stressful job.

    http://www.cnd.org/njmassacre/photos/killing2.jpg

    This moron also suggested to a U.S. commander of American troops stationed on Okinawa that his men should make fuller use of the island’s adult entertainment facilities.

    http://www.cnn.com/2013/05/14/.....?hpt=hp_t3

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: Rightwing ultra-nationalist pricks are
    about the same everywhere.

  16. 16

    Up in British Columbia, the center-right BC Liberals were re-elected, but one person who might to wait to return to Victoria, is their leader, the Premier. Premier Christy Clark is behind the NDP challenger by 500 votes.

    http://electionsbcenr.blob.cor.....idate.html

    Also it’s not much consolation, but a climate scientist was elected, as a to a seat on Vancouver Island, unseating a Liberal. Another Green Party candidate is barely behind in another seat. It helped the guy that won, that his seat overlaps the aeat of the Federal Green Party leader. Could have been more, the voters had the option to change the system twice in 2005, and 2009, but rejected it.

    http://www.straight.com/news/3.....een-mla-bc

  17. 17

    Whoo-hooo!! Stefan’s sucky little blog has a bit of “new blood,” to wit:

    “Mine is a name you’re going to see more frequently on Sound Politics going forward,”

    You’re kind of hard to miss, because nobody else is posting there.

    “so I’d like to take a moment to introduce myself.”

    Let’s skip the florid theatrics and get to the business at hand.

    “My name is Adam Faber, and last year I served as policy director of Rob McKenna’s gubernatorial campaign.”

    Ooooh! I knew this was gonna be a trick pony.

    “I have been active in the King County Republican Party for many years”

    Is that supposed to be a resume item?

    “and have worked on and for various campaigns and causes in the past.”

    As what? Bouncer? Were you the guy in charge of throwing Goldy out of McKenna’s “public” media events?

    “I am contributing to Sound Politics because I believe it’s important for government’s actions and decisions to receive proper scrutiny, and that regular citizens have a role in this.”

    You mean stuff like Jane Hague abusing a cop when stopped for drunk driving, or David Irons beating the crap out of his mother? His own mother for God’s sake??!

    “The Olympia press corps has shrunk significantly over the years, so there are a lot less ‘watchers’ examining government performance and questioning its rationales. While that is unfortunate, it is not something we have to just accept. You and I can do something about it.”

    Like what? Take up a collection to hire trained journalists? Surely you don’t think your blogging is an adequate substitute for professional reporting? Then again, maybe you do.

    “So you’ll see more posts from me going forward, covering whatever topics catch my eye – from state government to health care reform, transportation planning to ballot initiatives.”

    Yep, looks like that’s the plan.

    “I hope it will be fun,”

    Indubitably.

    “and I hope to add a little sunlight,”

    Be careful, you never know what kind of Roaches might run out from under the sink.

    “which we’ve all been told is the best disinfectant.”

    Well, there’s plenty of disinfecting to do. You should start with the GOP caucus, because that’s where the gangrene is. You know, the nuts who brandish guns in the legislative chamber and abuse legislative aides. I suggest you lay in a supply of industrial-strength disinfectant. And you’re going to need a large dumpster to shovel the slimy residue into.

    That said, good luck in your new gig. It must be a great relief for you to not be working on losing campaigns anymore.

  19. 19

    If you catch a Police Officer on camera committing a crime, don’t ever let anyone know until you’ve uploaded the video to YouTube or LiveLeak or some other video hosting website. Keep your mouth shut.

    Otherwise, you’re running a serious personal risk to your own life and liberty. The Police no longer obey the law, nor do they give a shit about protecting anyone but themselves and each other. Cops see only two kinds of people. There are Cops, and there are criminals. A “civilian” is just a criminal who hasn’t been caught yet.

    I’m hearing shit from the Veterans I’m in school with. Shit about the Police Officers who were called up into the reserves during the war in Iraq. About them always the first to kick in people’s doors, always at the fore when noncombatants were murdered in their homes or in the streets. Always the loudest braggarts about how many people they’d killed. Now those guys are back on the force in every city in the country, and they’ve brought those attitudes home.

  20. 20

    9: What part of “multi-national oil company” do you NOT understand? And do you realize that the U.S. is still the largest consumer of oil in the world, and before George W. Bush came into office, was the primary enforcer in the world when it came to antitrust laws and the oil companies?

    The EU is only acting because the U.S. government did not.

  24. 24

    A new study puts the lie to another cheap labor conservative shibboleth: Extended unemployment benefits doesn’t encourage laziness or cause people to stay unemployed longer.

    http://www.cnbc.com/id/100736004

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: I wonder when stupid Republicans will figure out that unemployment is what causes unemployment?

  25. 25

    Conservatives are wrong about so many things it’s hard to avoid the conclusion the whole conservative movement is based on a pack of lies.

  27. 27

    @26 Whereas in decades gone by it was, as Bill Cosby put it, “them kids….in them Chevvies” who were making all the noise, tire marks and general mayhem on the roads, today it’s more guys in their forties and fifties attempting to relive their adolescence. This is partly due to the younger folks no longer being able to afford such things. Junior’s biking, walking or taking the bus and trying to make a dent in his student-loan debt while Dad takes out an equity loan on the family homestead to buy a Mustang and pretend to be Steve McQueen.

  28. 28

    27)Great point. One of the bad things of student debt.

    Also, the current edition of Classic Trains magazine is a special on Interurbans, and the Chicago, North Shore, and Milwaukee, and the Pacific Electric had good articles about them in it. The one on the Pacific Electric was written by a frequent contributor/photographer, and gave a paragraph to what is being built, and said he never thought as the old system was being abandoned, any of it would be brought back.

  29. 29

    In another demonstration of the GOP’s weird sense of priorities, Speaker Boehner said today people responsible for auditing 501(4)(c) conservative organizations for tax compliance should go to jail. I don’t recall him ever demanding similar treatment for the banksters who brought the economy to its knees. And it should be pointed out that the IRS has legal authority to investigate whether orgs seeking tax-exempt status under 501(4)(c) or other code provisions are eligible for the exemption. Based on currently available infofmation, no conservative organizations were denied 504(4)(c) status, or dunned for any taxes or penalties, as a result of these audits. At most they were inconvenienced by having to produce documents and attend interviews — the same burden borne by ordinary taxpayers subject to routine random audits. Yet Boehner thinks this was a greater crime than the systematic fraud committed by the financial industry. What a mentally defective fuckwad.

  31. 31

    Issa deserved that rebuke. Holder was answering Issa’s questions honestly and straightforwardly. Then Issa, in the guise of asking a question, tried to put accusatory words in Holder’s mouth — and wouldn’t let Holder reply. Here is a paraphrase of what transpired:

    Issa: Your department gave us only 30 e-mails of some 1200 e-mails.

    Holder: I wasn’t personally involved in that process, but I’m sure there was a good reason for it.

    Issa: Yes, you’re trying to hide the details from us. [Issa then overtalks Holder when he tries to reply.]

    Holder: That comment was shameful and inappropriate.

    Damn right it was. It’s just Issa being the cheap demagogue and grandstanding asshole he is all the time. He looks like shit, and Holder came off shining.

  32. 32

    According to Wikipedia, Issa was accused of auto theft at least three times, and also has been accused of using public office for personal gain.

  35. 35

    So is Stern. The full NBA turned down the offer from Hansen. I say Hansen should sue for breach of contract, if he can.

  37. 37

    @29 Of course, there’ll be no mention of the churches (including some large mainstream congregations) that got hassled and threatened by the IRS a decade or so ago after their pastors had the nerve to say something critical of George and Dick’s Excellent Iraqi Adventure.

  38. 38

    Stern even said his press conference would be short, he had a game in OKC to get to. By the way, Memphis is up 3-1. I don’t want to jinx it too much.

  39. 39

    @31 Roger, do you know if the same “editing” rules apply to published committee proceedings as do to what members say when speaking on the House floor? If so, it’s a safe bet that what the world sees in print will be jiggered to make Holder sound like a blithering fool and Issa come across as the new Daniel Webster.

  41. 41

    @39 I haven’t checked recently, but my understanding is what gets printed in the Congressional Record bears only superficial resemblance (if any at all) to what was actually said; so it shouldn’t surprise us if this bit of history gets scrubbed from the official record.

  43. 43

    Eat Carp, Climate Deniers

    “Warming oceans are pushing fish toward the poles in search of cooler waters, according to a study that raises new concerns that climate change is robbing the tropics of a primary source of income and nutrition.

    “Meanwhile, in higher latitudes, … trawlers are hauling more warm-water fish out of the ocean ….

    “The global perspective published today in Nature … put the fishing industry and consumers on alert that they’ll need to adapt to climate change. …

    “The research used the temperature preference of fish and other marine species as a thermometer to assess the impact of climate change on the world’s oceans between 1970 and 2006. …

    “[G]lobal fishery catches are increasingly dominated by warm-water species as a result of fish migrating out of the tropics toward the poles. For example, in British Columbia, … tuna and mackerel are more abundant while sockeye salmon are declining.”

    http://science.nbcnews.com/_ne.....-says?lite

  44. 44

    An Armed Society Is A Polite Society Dep’t

    “Two South Carolina children are dead, their father is hospitalized and their mother is accused of murder. An autopsy report … said the children … were shot multiple times ….

    “An arrest warrant … shows that Suzanna Simpson … is charged with two counts of murder and attempted murder of her husband, Michael.”

    http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....e-say?lite

    Roger Rabbit Commentary: If you don’t want your family, just get a divorce and leave, you don’t need a gun for that. In fact, there’s damned little anyone ever needs a gun for. Guns are almost as useless as Republicans.

  47. 47

    Comparing IRS Tax audits in 2004-2005 with the DC IRS managers illegally sharing confidential tax information with DUMMOCRAPT political operatives before their tax status was determined.

    Direct from Alternet… another standard left wrong site of HA libtards!

    ArtFart@29 is a real person of lower intelligence….

  48. 48

    Can’t get any better than this…”IRS Official in Charge During Tea Party Targeting Now Runs Health Care Office”

    Sarah Hall Ingram served as commissioner of the office responsible for tax-exempt organizations between 2009 and 2012. But Ingram has since left that part of the IRS and is now the director of the IRS’ Affordable Care Act office, the IRS confirmed to ABC News today.

    Her successor, Joseph Grant, is taking the fall for misdeeds at the scandal-plagued unit between 2010 and 2012. During at least part of that time, Grant served as deputy commissioner of the tax-exempt unit.

    And this doesn’t reach into the whitey house? She was just casually picked to this new role withut the whitey house involved? 27 months with no Tea Party certifications during her time!

  50. 50

    @48 “And this doesn’t reach into the whitey house?”

    Got proof it does? If you don’t, you’re only blowing farts.

  51. 51

    Blowing Farts DUMB Wabbit… Did you watch the rainy news conference DUMB Wabbit? Very telling the omissions! Krauthammer then nailed it this evening! Nothing happens without whitey house fingerprints.

    Keep sucking that rotten fruit DUMB Wabbit.

  52. 52

    DAYUM

    The CIA officials, who had initially cited national security concerns in an attempt to delay publication, no longer had those worries, according to individuals familiar with the exchange. Instead, the Obama administration was planning to announce the successful counterterrorism operation that Tuesday.

    And this is precious

    Now, some members of Congress and media advocates are questioning why the administration viewed the leak that led to the May 7 AP story as so grave.

    So let’s get this straight… Obummer’s CIA bargained with the AP to prevent the administration from being scooped by the AP so they could brag about it the next day?

    This is

    Toooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo

    Daaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyuuuuuuuuuuum

    Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuunnnnnnnnnnnnny

    So they bug out and go for the AP phones to determine how the AP got the scoop? This is toooooooo sweeeeeeeeeeet. And the WaPo broke it! Well what will Media Morons say now? Puddy wonders what Alternet BS will FartyArt spew tomorrow? What will SCHMUCKO write from Daily Kooks! Wait… SCHMUCKO claims Kooks writes truth! We’ll see on this one!

    P A R A N O I A! When you threaten Obummer face time on TV over some fake Al Qaeda announcement, you gots ta pay!

  54. 54

    A good reuters blog post on the AP investigation. The author gives a good explanation for the subpoena, and by the way, claims to be a First Amendment Radical.

    http://blogs.reuters.com/jacks.....istration/

    What the AP had disclosed the details of having an agent on the inside, and that the explosive device was in the hands of the FBI. All the cell had to do was connect the dots.

  56. 56

    From @54 Reuter’s post

    One of the participants in the conference caller, President Clinton’s former counterterrorism chief, Richard Clarke, proceeded to milk and re-milk the conference call over the next two days in his role as an ABC News contributor.

    I don’t mean to suggest that Clarke “leaked” sensitive information from the Brennan conference call. Rather, he repeated what he was told about the operation. And once he started talking, his comments widened the AP’s rivulet into a 10-inch water main.

    PuddyCommentary: Richard Clarke… ABC News contributor… ABC’s hire a retread DUMMOCRAPT program… The same RC who allowed the Bin Laden family to escape US Soil… The same Richard Clarke who said things never mentioned in the May 2012 AP article… AP’s May 2012 article said nothing about an infiltrator, an insider, or a double agent.

    The U.S. government is saying it never came close because they had insider information, insider control, which implies that they had somebody on the inside who wasn’t going to let it happen.

    ERF… Thank you very much for making Puddy’s point perfectly clear. The WaPo was correct in their assessment. Richard Clarke disclosed the details of having an agent on the inside, and that the explosive device was in the hands of the FBI, NOT THE AP!

  57. 57

    Didn’t some yahoo libtard crow that Russia wasn’t sending advanced missiles to Syria last week? Some rumblings were printed where Russia would sell Assad and Syria missile systems that would allow Syria to fight any US or NATO attempt to impose a no-fly zone like Bush did in Iraq. Russia immediately denied the article premise, and it was put forth in a Reuters News Service article, touted on HA by this HA libtard last week. When Russia denies something it really means that’s exactly what Russia planned on doing all along. Puddy will let that yahoo libtard identify themselves first before Puddy replays their stoooooooooooopid jump the gun remarks…

    Unlike Scud and other longer-range surface-to-surface missiles that the Assad government has used against opposition forces, the Yakhont antiship missile system provides the Syrian military a formidable weapon to counter any effort by international forces to reinforce Syrian opposition fighters by imposing a naval embargo, establishing a no-fly zone or carrying out limited airstrikes.

    PuddyCommentary… How many “resets” is Obummer gonna perform with Putin? Seems to Puddy Putin just sent “a signal of the Russian commitment to the Syrian government.” And… which countries have naval weaponry in the Mediterranean that might be needed to impose a blockade or no-fly zone? The US of course with our Med Fleet, the French, and the British. What if an Assad fired missile hits a cruise ship by accident?

    We see in this latest “reset”, Russia has now clearly come down against Western intervention. They are furthering their proxy’s arms cache, their “long time friends Syria” with this latest missile cache. Russia lost face on Libya when Khaddafi was overthrown. They are making a stand with Syria. We see Putin’s Russia is not an ally in the man made disasters (terrorism by any other name), although not yet back to the standard Cold War enemy, but it’s getting much closer to Stalin, and Brezhnev. And…, all that negative derogatory Bush was a foreign policy cowboy rhetoric from Obummer’s administration foreign-policy team (remember Hillary’s comments, remember Obummer’s European “tour”), they’ve not done any better at dealing with Putin, Europe and the Middle East, especially telling Medvedev to wait until after the election as he will have more room to maneuver. Arguably Obummer is doing much worse.

    See ya!

  58. 58

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  60. 60

    The story I shared was mainly about the S-300 SAM, the missile in the times story was the Yakhont, an anti-ship missile. Also, when I posted the article, it said no new sales, existing orders would be fulfilled.

  61. 61

    One of the stories that I shared on the Russian decision last week.
    Sergei Lavrov, the Russian foreign minister, ended nervous Washington and Pentagon speculation today by telling the ITAR-TASS news agency that the Kremlin isn’t actually going to sell the S-300 air defense missile to Assad. Whatever other arms deals Russia will honor with Syria, the S-300 won’t be included.

    U.S. officials had worried to the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday that the Russians were prepared to ship Assad as many as 144 operational 3-000s, along with six (presumably mobile) launchers. Syria already has about five times the air defenses that Moammar Gadhafi’s Libya did, packed within a fifth of Libya’s territory, something that Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Martin Dempsey has warned about for over a year.

    http://www.wired.com/dangerroo.....300-syria/

  63. 63

    62) He only quotes liberal sources when they agree with him, or looks at them. Plus, wasn’t Richard CLarke an advisor to Presidents of both parties?

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