Please join us for another splendid summer evening of politics over a pint at the Seattle Chapter of Drinking Liberally.
We meet tonight and every Tuesday evening at the Montlake Ale House, 2307 24th Avenue E. Starting time is 8:00pm, although some people show up earlier than that for Dinner.
Can’t make it to Seattle tonight? Check out the 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. And for Thursday, the Spokane and Tacoma chapters meet. Finally, next Monday, the Yakima and Olympia chapters meet.
With 208 chapters of Living Liberally, including eighteen in Washington state, four in Oregon, and three more in Idaho, chances are excellent there’s a chapter meeting near you.
Looks like Washington will stay blue for a very long time:
“Some of the contenders to become the next chair of the state Republican Party argue the GOP’s top candidates have flopped in Washington because they weren’t conservative enough.”
http://seattletimes.com/html/l.....erxml.html
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Few things in life are as satisfying as watching Delusional Republicans (TM; pat. pend.) commit political suicide.
Here’s a real gem from the above article:
“Hutchison .. is touting her … experience facing the ‘dishonest tactics’ of ‘the Democratic machine’ during her unsuccessful campaign for King County executive four years ago.”
What? You mean Democrats calling her a “Republican”? Was she honest when she called herself “nonpartisan”? Whatever.
Look who’s gonna be a senator come the fall…
@3
Yeah, that’s kind of a drag. I like Rush Holt – we need more physics PhD’s in the Senate.
Go Suzie Hutchison! Her antics will be highly entertaining indeed!
@5 Yeah, I can imagine her chairing the state party’s voter suppression committee’s working sessions.
I expect cory booker will be president.
Bruno Iksil, the “London Whale” whose unauthorized trading cost JP Morgan Chase Bank more than $6 billion, will get off scot-free as a reward for ratting on his fellow banksters.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/100960047
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I wonder how many years Bradley Manning will get for ratting on a government that was lying to us?
The bus driver shot on Monday is already recovering home, and speaking to the press. Great that he pulled through.
http://www.king5.com/news/loca.....97461.html
The investigation into the Lac Megantic disaster continues, with the cause still yet to be determined, the crew size debate is heating up anyway. It’s interesting, we have a new technology mandate coming up, that the railroads will probably try to exploit to their advantage after they are done claiming that they can’t meet the Positive Train Control mandate. The Railway Unions are fighting to keep a second person in the cab, and have fought each other over who gets to be the second person in the cab.
http://www.railwayage.com/inde.....l?channel=
Right now, I don’t mind seeing one-man remote control operations in classification yards, it’s a controlled environment. Also, Amtrak gets away with one man locomotive crews, per union contract, shifts up to six hours is the limit. One reason, is engineer bathroom breaks. An example of this, train 8 out of King Street Station. I saw a map of Amtrak crew districts once, and they change engineers in Wenatchee, Spokane, and Whitefish, while conductors change at Spokane and Shelby, Montana, and a joint crew change in North Dakota, before the short crew districts for engineers resume in Minnesota.
@1 WA GOP Leader
oxymoron?King of the Morons?The White House dismisses such examples as “anecdotal.” Jason Furman, chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisors, said, “We are seeing no systematic evidence that the Affordable Care Act is having an adverse impact on job growth or the number of hours employees are working. … [S]ince the ACA became law, nearly 90 percent of the gain in employment has been in full-time positions.”
But the president of an influential union that supports Obamacare said the White House is wrong.
“It IS happening,” insisted Joseph Hansen, president of the United Food and Commercial Workers union, which has 1.2 million members. “Wait a year. You’ll see tremendous impact as workers have their hours reduced and their incomes reduced. The facts are already starting to show up. Their statistics, I think, are a little behind the time.”
In a letter to Democratic leaders on Capitol Hill, Hansen joined other labor chieftains in warning that the ACA as presently written could “destroy the foundation of the 40-hour work week that is the backbone of the middle class.”
http://investigations.nbcnews......hours?lite
Well done, Dems! Own it.
“Boeing Co.’s 787 Dreamliner suffered a fresh setback after ANA Holdings Inc., the model’s biggest operator, said it discovered wiring defects in three aircraft. … ANA’s Tezuka said parts were replaced in two of the jets in which the Tokyo-based carrier found the defect, adding it must have occurred during the manufacturing process.”
http://www.heraldnet.com/artic.....ldNetMSNBC
Roger Rabbit Commentary: I’ll bet these planes were assembled by non-union, low-wage, labor in South Carolina. You get what you pay for.
@ 13
You get what you pay for.
If only that were true.
Obama said a new era must begin now, an unvarnished message to Mubarak that he should not cling to power until elections in September.
“The key question he should be asking himself is, ‘How do I leave a legacy behind in which Egypt is able to get through this transformative period?'” Obama said Friday.
http://www.cbsnews.com/2100-50.....20007.html
Apparently being forced out of office by Obama and others applying international pressure wasn’t the way to leave that legacy:
Police storm protest camps; 149 dead across Egypt
Egypt’s interim president has declared a monthlong state of emergency to combat worsening violence after riot police moved to clear two sprawling encampments of supporters of ousted Islamist President Mohammed Morsi.
A statement by the office of President Adly Mansour said Wednesday that the state of emergency takes effect at 4 p.m. (1400 GMT, 10 a.m. EDT). It didn’t provide details but says Mansour also ordered the armed forces to support the police in their efforts to restore law and order and protect state facilities.
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/s.....TE=DEFAULT
Smart power. So that’s how it’s done.
Bonus (CNN):
Mohamed ElBaradei resigns as Egypt’s interim vice president of foreign affairs, state-run Nile TV reports.
A rule in bipartisan Amtrak legislation passed years ago, requires the states to pick up the cost of trains that run less than 750 miles. The ones in Red States are most at risk as the mandate nears. The 4 day a week Chicago-Indianapolis Hoosier State is the biggest example. This train, should not have been included in the mandate, because of one aspect of the route. It is used by Amtrak to deadhead bad-ordered cars and locomotives to it’s Beech Grove, Ind shops, which are outside of Indiana’s capitol. The reason it runs 4 days a week, is the other three are handled by the New York-Washington DC-Charleston(W.VA)-Cincincati-Indianapolis-Chicago Cardinal.
http://www.insideindianabusine.....p?ID=60810
Another one at risk but the state is going to pick up the tab, and runs in a state with a Republican legislature and Governor, is the Pennsylvanian. Alternatives that were looked into included getting others to run it. A private operator may have dropped the cafe car, SEPTA would have gone further, no toilets or service west of Harrisburg, as SEPTA’s Regional Rail has not operatad regular diesel trains in 30 years. Part of the reason was Electric territory just happened to be in Philadelphia and it’s 4 suburban counties, and Governor Thornbergh was the one to limit SEPTA to that.(Fired a head of PennDoT who refused to cut the service). Also the Center City Tunnel was built without the necessary Ventilation fans, prohibiting run-through operations. What was lost with that decision, service to Reading, Valley Forge, and Allentown. The overhead wire on the Keystone Corridor ends at Harrisburg.
@ 16
A rule in bipartisan Amtrak legislation passed years ago, requires the states to pick up the cost of trains that run less than 750 miles.
Wisconsin turned down money for a rail project. Is it related to this at all?
Different law. The money Wisconsin rejected was from the stimulus. This law was signed by Bush 43. It was a compromise. Every few years both sides draw their battle lines on new policy, a compromise usually results, and Amtrak management never gets a chance to see if their ideas work. For example, they ince expiremented with the diner working 24 hours, it worked, labor and management waa on board, but a change at the top, and the expirement was over.
In March, alternate ground transportation in Montana took a hit when the unthinkable happened. Montana institution, Rimrock Stages was shut down for safety violations by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, which called it an immediate hazard. I was curious to see if they were running again, turns out it’s worse. A couple operators swooped in, and one is pulling back out, insufficient demand Billings-SLC. Also, Rimrock Stages recently passed inspection, but other hurdles remain. If they get their buses insured again, they may not return to scheduled operations. Salt Lake Express may not have worked out, but Minnesota-based Jefferson Lines has taken over I-90 all the way into Missoula, and they are not pulling back out.
http://billingsgazette.com/new.....e91e3.html
One Montana city that may not regain bus service, is Deer Lodge, home to the Montana State Prison. It was a flag stop, but parolees usually got a ride out of town after release on the Rimrock. Something else at Deer Lodge could be a ridership generator, but since it rarely happens in Montana, is protestors and counter-protesters, as Deer Lodge is home to Montana’s Death Row.
http://helenair.com/news/local.....f887a.html
As for the US2 corridor, it has not had service in years anyway, from Libby to Wolf Point, Amtrak 7/8 handles rural intercity transportation for those who do not want to drive long distances.
I just filed the following complaint with the state AG. Note the bolded bit.
Now, if we’d done the sensible thing and kicked Texas out of the union back when Rick Perry threatened to leave, maybe we wouldn’t have to deal with law breaking dickwads like these people on the phone.
The funny bit about it is that with the info I gleaned from our last conversation I was able to find the guy they’re looking for in about 2 minutes. I’m not going to share the info with GC Services, of course. But, I did leave Brady a message that he had collections people looking for him.
But, hey, The Real Americans in Texas understand how to run a business!
Continuing my post@19, an interesting video presentation on Jefferson Lines, the company that moved into Montana to pick up the Rimrock Stages routes on I-90, and now that the latter is almost ready to return, won’t five up it’s new business. In the 1920s, it briefly owned an airline, that later became Northwest Airlines.
http://www.ridejeffersonlines......the-years/
@20 Now you know how Florida cleans up their voter rolls. If some guy named John Smith moves to Georgia they kick 50,499 people named John Smith off the voter rolls figuring the right one has to be in there someplace.
@20 (continued) Now that you know who they are, send them a cease and desist letter demanding that they stop calling you. Under the federal Fair Debt Collection Practices Act, they must stop calling you if you demand in writing that they stop calling you, and if they don’t you can sue them for statutory damages + actual damages + attorney’s fees.
This might be helpful.
http://blog.credit.com/2011/04.....hat-to-do/
And if they weren’t Roger SENILE DUMBASS and LUNATIC Wabbit? You’ll look more stupid than ever. How can that be? Roger SENILE DUMBASS and LUNATIC Wabbit is already at the sub-basement for stooooooooooooooopidity already?
Puddybigot’s sputting aside…is it possible to track, or has someone outside of Boeing done this, to know where the planes having trouble were manufactured?
@24
Thanks, Rog.
Los Angeles is starting construction on a new light rail tunnel in Downtown Los Angeles. The Gold Line to Pasadena and East LA is cut off from the Blue Line, meaning an extra transfer for riders. The Regional Connector will allow the growing system to work more effectively. There also are the lawsuits, but the LACMTA may have a loophole in the California environmental laws.
http://la.curbed.com/archives/.....wsuits.php
The California State Supreme Court in San Francisco has dismissed another challenge to reinstate prop8.
http://thinkprogress.org/lgbt/.....dismissed/
Pierce Transit announced that they will be running some of their buses on renewable natural gas, first in the nation. It will be sourced from the Cedar Hills landfill.
http://www.piercetransit.org/press-releases/?id=68
@25 “SENILE DUMBASS and LUNATIC Wabbit!”
Puddy, the government agrees with you, and your taxes are now paying for my veteran’s disability benefits. It shouldn’t come as a big shock that Veterans Affairs concluded a Vietnam veteran who thinks he’s a rabbit has issues. I used Puddy as a reference in my application, but they won’t tell me whether they contacted him. All I know is I’m getting checks in the mail. Thanks! I appreciate your support. You are a true friend. By the way, Puddy, why do you talk like Elmer Fudd?
I wonder if I can get a Disabled Parking sticker now?
Amtrak had it’s best month ever in July. While this was happening, the politicians were fighting over how to drive passengers away(Republicans going after on board services), and Democrats fighting to keep the passengers coming(pushing back against GOP efforts). This happens every year or two.
In the old days, the Diner was a loss leader,even the Santa Fe’s diners did not make money, but they had other ways of clearing costs.(Mail, Express, and they introduced bi-level coaches on the El Capitan as a way to use fewer coaches, and in times of low demand, combine it with theSuper Chief)
http://www.metro-magazine.com/.....t-20130814
@33. Dang it. Why do republicans want to mess things up. I enjoyed riding Amtrak. Privitizing on board services will just take it from decent prices and free services like the online wifi access, and change that so only the “wealthy” can afford, and the rest get nothing like on a cut rate airline.
Thats probably the key theme, the 99% “takers” are getting something for free or at a reasonable price, and that’s not acceptable in republican land.