It was nine years ago today that I relaunched HorsesAss.org as an “almost daily blog on Washington State politics and the press.” You can read my very first post here. It is a touch fascinating to look back on how I managed to preserve the original vision of HA without at all anticipating how it would ultimately take over my life.
Anyway, in celebration of this milestone (and prodded Darryl) here is a list of some of my nine favorite and/or most influential posts, in chronological order. Thank you all for the past nine years, especially to all my co-bloggers who have carried on the HA tradition in my absence. And enjoy.
Stick a Foulkes in it, this case is done! (02/23/2005)
I’ve always been particularly proud of my legal analysis. In this early post, I explained exactly why Dino Rossi would lose his election contest, months before the court ultimately ruled.
FEMA director Mike Brown, a “total fucking disaster” (09/02/2005)
You know that Arabian horse story that hastened the demise of incompetent FEMA director Mike “Heckuva Job” Brown? This is the post that started it all, and first brought HA to a national audience.
Raging Bullshitter: the sad twisted tale of the Irons family feud (10/20/2005)
The day before this post hit, explaining why his own mother wouldn’t vote for him, King County Council member David Irons Jr. had a small lead in the polls in his bid to unseat Executive Ron Sims. After the media storm I generated, Irons ended up losing by 17 points.
Luke Esser fucks pigs (10/17/2006)
It is a sad irony that one of my funniest and most outrageous posts was written in defense Rodney Fucking Tom.
HA EXCLUSIVE: Seattle Times election day redesign revealed! (10/23/2006)
A rare display of my extraordinary Photoshop skills.
Falwell That Ends Well (An Ode To The Mortal Majority) (05/16/2007)
For a change of pace, some poetry!
Goldy’s Adventures in Muniland (04/25/2008)
In which I masquerade as David Postman and accept his Municipal League award.
Young woman quit DNR after being sexually harassed by Commissioner Sutherland (07/15/2008)
And election-changing bit of muckraking that all the other papers had, but refused to run with. Until after I did.
A layman’s refutation of Rob McKenna’s bullshit lawsuit (03/29/2010)
More than two years before the US Supreme Court surprised pundits by upholding Obamacare on Congress’s taxing power, I explained why the court would uphold Obamacare based on Congress’s taxing power.
Not to be forgotten is this gem from the “Foulkes” thread:
“3. Josef the Dinocrat in Marummy Country spews:
‘Clearly invalid’ Good enough for me. BRING. IT. ON.”
Your wish is our command, Josef. Oh, and btw, I said it at the time, I said it afterward, but I’ll say it again: You should have asked Zitz for a date before it was too late; now she’s married and gone forever, and you can’t have her, you procrastinating fool. OTOH, maybe you knew what you were doing when you passed on her …
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
Hmmm, 16 comments on the original posting. Now HA gets that many in 10 minutes. The “other” blog? There would be no content at all this month if Jim Miller didn’t copy-and-paste a couple items from his own blog. Sure looks like Goldy won the blog wars!
I’ve decided it’s time to drop the fact I’ve been banned “other” blog from my handle. There’s no blog over there anymore to get banned from. Too bad, because getting booted by Pudgy Wudgy was one of my proudest accomplishments of the last nine years.
What a strange trip it’s been..
We’ll be here for the 10th I hope..
Long live HA!
Happy Birthday HA!
Daniel K!?!
Wow…welcome back, man!
Looks like Jason Richwine has been fired from Heritage Foundation. Or quit.
There is a report that the IRS was targeting Tea Party-like organizations for harrassment/scrutiny. It’s nothing new for the IRS: Richard Nixon was notorious for using the IRS as a weapon against him enemies. Now Republicans are complaining about what they’ve been doing in the past to their enemies.
Both sides will use government agencies to further there agendas. This is business as usual.
That should be “their” not “there.” Autocomplete sometimes gets it wrong.
@8 Same old wingnut bullshit: “Democrats do it too!”
Sorry, pal, but the IRS harassment of Nixon’s critics and opponents was ordered at the top, whereas the “additional reviews” of Tea Party groups were “initiated by low-level workers in Cincinnati,” which isn’t the same thing by a country mile. This is a tempest in a teapot; it’s nothing more than a district office in-house personnel matter.
I’m not a wing nut, Roger. I’m just someone who thinks the left and right ar equally bad, in the own ways, and neither is worthy of respect.
What matters is politicians using government for the furtherance of their agendas and doing that in an evil way.
@9 More to the point, your take on it is absurdly wrong. There’s not a shred of evidence the president or administration officials are involved; and the IRS itself disclosed it, apologized for it, and will be taking remedial action. It’s an IRS internal personnel issue, and your attempt to compare this incident with Nixon’s misuse of the IRS to harass people on his “enemies list” is beyond laughable. See #10.
@12 Are you saying “politicians” are behind this? Based on what?
From 14,
It’s always about politics, Roger. The scale may be different, but it’s always the same: politicians do what they do to stay in power.
@11 “Left” and “right” are damned broad terms, Ten. If you include Stalin on the “left” and Hitler on the “right” then I would argue they weren’t equally bad, because I think Stalin was worse than Hitler, although I would admit they both were so bad it’s hard to see the distinction between them.
Now, if you’re talking domestic politics, and you include people like Bill Ayers on the “left” and Tim McVeigh on the “right” then I would say they’re both pretty bad and I want no truck with either of them. It seems, though, like there are far more rightwing crazies than leftwing crazies in our country today, and it also seems like the rightwing crazies are far more violent and dangerous than the leftwing crazies.
But if you’re talking about ordinary run-of-the-mill left-versus-right domestic politics, well, I’ll take an Al Franken over a Michelle Bachmann any day.
I’ll concede you’re not a standard-mold Glenn Beck talking-points rightwing asshat troll. But you’re definitely a troll and ideologue. I’ve got you pegged as a libertarian outlier.
From 16,
Whatever, Roger. You’re a self-avowed political hack who spends his days worshiping at his private altar of self-aggrandizement here on HA. You’re a petty little man with nothing to do all day and no where to go, and you have all day to do it and all day to get there. In fact, you are an ideologue and a troll in your own way.
@17 You can’t get anything right, can you? I’m a self-admitted liberal propagandist and Democratic party hack who spends his days worshipping at the public altar of financial aggrandizement known as the stock market. I’m a rather large man (around the waist anyway) pretending to be a 30-inch tall rabbit who has reached that exalted state of life, sought by many but attained by few, where I enjoy the obscene luxury of not having to go anywhere or do anything all day. That’s what Capitalism gets ya, if you’re clever enough to hop onto that train. Sure beats working for wages. As for your allegation that I’m some sort of ideologue, I’m sure many of the HA oldtimers are already rolling on the floor, as I’m one of the most eclectic thinkers posting here. I call myself a “liberal” for convenience, but that’s kind of a square-peg-round-hole type of deal.
As for calling me “petty and little,” that puts you in the same basket as trolls who call me a “commie” or “socialist”; you’re trying to get away with it by putting a slightly more polite (if you want to call it that) spin on it, but you’re not fooling anyone. It’s merely name-calling. Not that there’s anything wrong with name-calling. I do it, too, as a matter of principle. By that I mean, the same principle that says “if you nuke us, we’ll nuke you back,” also known as MAD (mutually assured destruction). The thing is, I’ll stop name-calling when the righties stop name-calling; and because they started it, they have to stop first, and then I’ll stop when they’ve stopped.
@15 If you can’t tell the difference between Nixon ordering the IRS to harass his political opponents and critics, and a bunch of line employees in an IRS district office taking it upon themselves to look into whether a blatantly political group is complying with IRS restrictions on granting non-profit tax-exempt status to political groups, you’re an even thicker blockhead than I already credit you for.
@15 “politicians do what they do to stay in power”
Okay, so here, you are saying the “additional reviews” of Tea Party groups conducted by an IRS district office were the actions of politicians motivated by a desire to stay in power.
Which politicians? Elected or appointed? On whose orders? Who, who, who? Be specific, and explain what you’re basing your allegations on.
From the news accounts I’ve read there’s not a shred of evidence that any elected politician or political appointee was involved in this, so it looks to me like you’re just making shit up as you go along. You aren’t the first troll to do that; there’s nothing original about it. We get this kind of bullshit on this blog all the time.
Unlike our excitable friend TYA, CNBC has a balanced view of the IRS flap. http://www.cnbc.com/id/100727589
How about some blogroll maintenance, Goldy? Several of the links in your blogroll are to defunct sites or to sites that haven’t been updated in a while, like years.
Thank You Goldy! It has been a real treat to watch this site over the years.I’m also happy that other people have noticed what a fine writer you are.Of course big Thank Yous to Lee and Carl and Darryl!HA rules!