It’s another stunningly beautiful summer day in Seattle. So join us this evening for some celebration and politics 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 one of the other DL meetings this week. Tonight the Tri-Cities and Shelton chapters also meet. The Enumclaw and South Seattle chapters meet this Wednesday. And the Woodinville chapter meets on Thursday.
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.
Have fun, guys, I have to attend a business dinner.
These are the same guys, similarly dressed, that were beating up on a gay guy for what we would call free speech here in this country. They are barbarians. I wonder what the fuck is there problem?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nzeBwS5dZVo
Where’s our resident birther gs/ld/yd on the Cruz issue?
Anyone that doesn’t think racism is alive and well in America (and else where) needs to read the comment threads of articles on the killing of Christopher Lane.
Patterson Hood of the Drive By Truckers has a great post about the south up on The Bitter Southerner. Hood’s writing is way better than anything on MSNBC or something some 19 year old intern at the DNC slapped together, so go read it.
http://bittersoutherner.com/pa.....hQonhZpFz8
@2 What do you expect from Russians?
The 1972 Miami Dolphins finally got to visit the White House. The Undefeated team didn’t get to go after they won the Super Bowl, because they didn’t get an invite. Apparently they beat Nixon’s team. A few didn’t go today because they oppose President Obama, while Mercury Morris said it was worth the wait, as in the interim, he heard some of the tapes with Nixon’s comments on African Americans.
In Australia, their electoral system can have some interesting stories. Compulsory voting and a preferential voting system that requires all candidates to be ranked for a ballot to count. Parties make side deals. Labor wants Central Melbourne back from the Greens, but they need the Greens to continue to hold the Balance in the Senate. So they are preferencing the Greens last in the Central Melbourne seat, and second in all other House seats,and Nationally in Senate races except Queensland, Labor owes the founder of the Katter’s Australian Party a favor.
http://www.smh.com.au/federal-.....2s3er.html
This TPer can’t even spell the office he’s running for.
http://hoh.rollcall.com/alexan.....-the-gate/
Meanwhile, Sheriff Joe Arpaio is threatening to shoot rightwing border vigilantes after one of them mistook his deputy for a border jumper. The vigilante is lucky to be in jail.
“Arpaio … warned there will be “chaos if you’re going to have private citizens … taking the law into their own hands.”
http://usnews.nbcnews.com/_new.....-shot?lite
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Geez, America’s Toughest Sheriff (TM) is starting to sound just like a liberal!
Gunfights between a rightwing sheriff’s cops and rightwing militias … this is gonna be good. Hollywood should send film crews to get footage for future action flicks.
The moron who pointed an assault rifle at a sheriff’s deputy is now facing aggravated assault charges and probably is looking at 5 to 10 years. The lockup is a good place for him.
Manning Gets 35 Years
A military judge has sentenced Bradley Manning to 35 years in prison. This could get reduced by higher-level review within the military court system. But even the time he’s served thus far is more than the real criminals got.
After years of Republican rule, America has become a country where torturers go scot-free while whistleblowers are charged with treason and get 35 years in Leavenworth.
No wonder Russians send observers to monitor our elections.
And in Louisiana, 44% of the people are “unsure” if Barack Obama was responsible for the response to Hurricane Katrina.
That State needs to have its Public Schools Federalized. Put a few Ph.Ds in charge and pack the schools with all the Doctoral and Masters degree holders that can’t find a job because the Federal government prefers to keep issuing tens of thousands of H1-B visas rather than actually encouraging Companies to hire American citizens with similar qualifications.
The job situation is so bad even God is laying off His employees.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....90359.html
@13 What do y’all think the odds are that Sgt. Bales gets a lighter sentence?
@14
Nah, just shut the whole thing down. Cut the residents a check and let the free market give them the best deal on where to move to.
In Toronto, the union that represents bus, streetcar, and subway drivers and mechanics, is hard to please. The latest grief they have with the TTC, proposed new uniforms that look like the uniforms of the the Montreal Canadiens!
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/.....forms.html
@10. The irony is amusing.
Remember Obama did nothing to manage the Federal response to Katrina, And what about Obama’s unforgivable lack of action during Three Mile Island? And his complete lack of anything involving our response to Pearl Harbor. And don’t get me started on what Obama didn’t do during the Irish Potato Famine.
– It’s Snark Week.
@16 Bales’ only sentencing options are life with, or without, parole so he’ll get more time than Manning. But he should, because he murdered more innocent women and children than Manning.
Israel is planning a monument to honor gay victims of Nazi persecution.
http://www.salon.com/2013/08/2.....rsecution/
One of the reasons I am posting this link, is because some on the anti-gay rights side, or at least it’s fringe, keep saying that the Nazis were gay. I was nervous about adding that last line because of Godwins Law. I believe that the guy who is being sued for Crimes against Humanity by people opposed to the Controversial Uganda Law, is one who keeps saying that, as well as the head of the American Family Association.
Why Isn’t This Guy Dead?
“A man who was shot in the hand last week by Snohomish County deputies claimed through his attorney Tuesday that he was trying to [drop] his guns when the bullets began flying.
“Gene Fagerlie, 36, appeared briefly in Everett District Court, his left arm in a sling. He’s been jailed since being released by Harborview Medical Center ….
“Fagerlie was shot early Thursday morning after he allegedly pointed a firearm at deputies. At the time, he was outside his Lake Goodwin-area mobile home carrying an AR-15 military style rifle, a pump shotgun with an illegally shortened barrel and a .45-caliber handgun, according to police reports.
“Deputies were summoned to Fagerlie’s home after the reportedly intoxicated man began sending text messages about plans to harm himself and others. Before they arrived, he allegedly shot a TEC-9 semiautomatic handgun into the ground at his former girlfriend’s feet.
“Deputies told detectives that Fagerlie pointed a firearm at them when they shouted at him ‘Police! Drop the gun. Put your hands up!’ … In court Tuesday, … defense attorney Mark Mestel … said [Fagerlie] wasn’t menacing deputies with a firearm but instead was trying to follow orders to disarm when he was shot.
“In court Tuesday, Fisher … presented paperwork alleging that Fagerlie had been drunk, was wearing body armor and for hours had been making statements and sending text messages about intending to shoot it out with police. …
“At the time of the shooting Fagerlie was wanted for failing to turn up for arraignment after being charged with first-degree child molestation on July 12. The case involves allegations that he sexually assaulted an 8-year-old girl.”
http://www.heraldnet.com/artic...../708209810
Roger Rabbit Commentary: If those deputies had been Seattle cops this scumbag would have 100 bullet holes in him.
Under the Republican interpretation of the Second Amendment, anyone can have guns, no background check or permit required, and can carry them anywhere including bars, elementary schools, churches, and daycares.
That’s a stupid interpretation of the Constitution. Even constitutional rights are subject to reasonable government regulation. You cannot, for example, cry “Fire!” in a crowded theater without consequences. Nor is giving military secrets to our enemies considered protected speech.
Republicans do have a somewhat flexible interpretation of the Fourth Amendment, though. That’s the one that deals with search and seizure, due process, and the right to a fair trial. Under the Republican interpretation, you don’t get a trial at all, they just lock you up in Gitmo and lose the key.
Why does anyone vote for these asswipes? You have to be a moron to vote Republican.
Banks not only rob the poor, they work wannabes to death.
http://www.nbcnews.com/busines.....6C10971970
Roger Rabbit Commentary: Let’s abolish banks and go back to barter. Banks are nothing but bloodsucking leeches. The way to deal with a bank is pour salt on it or hold a lit cigaret to its ass until it lets go, then step on it.
The NSA spying scandal keeps getting worse.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/.....d=webmail1
Julian Assange is running for Senate in Australia, on the Wikileaks Party ticket. Well, the number two on the Wikileaks Party ticket in the State of Victoria, where she would serve if Assange was elected but could not take his seat, has quit. She said that her party has a problem with the Democratic Process. It comes to how the party decided the most important aspect of the election, the preference deal. In Western Australia, for example, they preferenced some candidates from the junior party of the Center-right coalition, the Nationals, over an ally they have in the Green Party. The preference deal allows vote transfers from party to party. The higher the ranking a smaller party gives on their Group Voting Ticket.
http://www.abc.net.au/news/201.....ts/4903084
In the territories, since they only get two Senators, it will probably be one each elected from Labor and the Liberals, but the States each get 12, and only have 6 up this time. The Single Transferable Vote system they use, is a quota system. The quota is the number of votes divided by the number of seats+1, so it would be around 14%.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Droop_quota
In 2009, one of the conditions for their support, the Free Democrats asked Chancellor Merkel to suspend the Compulsory Military Draft. They got it, and now the Bundeswehr is complaining about a high dropout rate among volunteers.
http://m.dw.de/english/mobile.A-17035792-9097.html
More proof, as if any more is needed, the Glenn Beck and the people he associates with are thieving dirtbags.
Bradley Manning will ask for a presidential pardon, AOL News reports. He should get it, but he won’t. A whistleblower like Manning shouldn’t do more time than mass murderers like William Calley or Robert Bales, but he probably will, because Obama doesn’t want to piss off the military. In any case, Manning’s timing is off. He should request a pardon shortly before Obama leaves office. It will be more feasible for the president to give it to him then.
This is grim
@31. It is half the freelance future, all the risk but none of the pay to offset that risk.
@31 Great way to create employee loyalty.
#31 The article talked about the newer employees were very transistory. I’m sure the bosses ran the numbers and found they didn’t need employee loyalty, at least in the short run. The company would be able to coast with the disposable workers. I wonder if they will slowly lose market share as customers drift away from the mediocre customer service and in five years be wondering why the company is folding.